


Through the Static

by ewatsonia



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Mystery, Post Hidden Block Route, Televoid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-21 00:24:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 49,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10673853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewatsonia/pseuds/ewatsonia
Summary: Ian goes missing, no trace, not one hint of where he could be. His friends find him in the most unexpected of ways but have no idea how to get him back.Or the answer to “What if Asagao!Ian got trapped in the Televoid?”





	1. Chapter 1

It was just like Hana’s life, for a nice day to cause a long series of terrible ones.

Who would guess that Mai grinning brightly as she plugged in the last wire needed to set up a new TV was a bad omen?

She stepped back from the dresser she’d placed it atop and pressed the power button on the remote, bringing it to life.  It wasn’t a huge TV by any means, not much larger than some computer monitors, but it was certainly nicer than anything she and her dad had ever owned. Mai whirled to face Hana and threw out some jazz hands.

“Tada!” she exclaimed. “Man this was such a great present. I was getting _soo_ sick of waiting to watch stuff. Maybe I can spoil shit for Mimi now.”

Hana giggled, remembering how pissed Mai had been the last time Mimi had loudly talked about a character death in the Strolling Dead that she hadn’t known about. Her redheaded roommate wasted no time plotting revenge.  Hana watched Mai flip from the channel with no signal to another that had some commercial going. Pleased that it was up and running just fine, she turned it off.

“All right, that’s done! And just in time to get some lunch.” said Mai as she clapped her hands together. “I’m starving.”

Food definitely sounded good to Hana.

They walked to the lunch hall, Hana listening to Mai’s enthusiastic chatter about other shows she was pumped to able to watch right away. It amused Hana, you’d think Mai hadn’t been finding her shows uploaded to some shady video site like an hour after they aired before now. Admittedly in bad quality, but it was almost as if she’d been completely without them before now.

The pair entered the building and made a beeline to the food, their growling stomachs demanding they go as fast as possible. With the acquired sandwiches on their trays, the pair scanned the cafeteria to see if any of their friends were around. Lunch was still served at the same time, even on non class days, but who knows which of them had decided to make the effort to go off campus for food.

Hana spotted a table of familiar faces all bearing yellow and black jackets identical to hers, and headed towards it. The Hidden Block table was almost uncharacteristically calm right now. For one thing, she couldn’t hear them from across the cafeteria. There was still some loud talking here and there, but it was far more laid back than during the week. She knew it had something to do with most of them being night owls, and that this was probably their breakfast rather than their lunch.

“Hey.” Ian said, catching Hana and Mai approaching the table. He pulled out two vacant seats next to him (conveniently right between him and Caddy) and the girls filled them in.

It looked to Hana like most alert members sitting at the table were Ian and Wallid, both clearly having had a good night’s sleep and gotten up at a reasonable hour. The rest were a much different story. Luke kept drooping and suddenly lurching up, Caddy was doing a little better but was staring blankly into a salad rather than eating it, and Jeff was _kind of_ awake but kept closing his eyes and yawning.

“Where’s Jimbo at?” Mai asked, noticing the younger boy’s absence.

“Sleeping still. I don’t think he actually went to bed until the sun was up.” Caddy replied, jabbing a stubborn piece of lettuce onto his fork at he spoke. 

Ian’s brows narrowed, evidently having some kind of beef with this fact. “Yeah I got a text from him at like _6am_ saying he’d have to ditch me this afternoon to catch up on sleep.”

“What were you guys going to do?” Hana asked, her question making Ian perk up

“He was gonna come with me to this second-hand electronics store I saw last time I was in the city. They were closed then, but places like that sometimes have some _really_ cool shit and I wanted to check it out.”

That explained that. Ian was always on the look out for the old and obscure, whether it was games or bits of technology. It was funny to her that people had the impression that Ian was always grumpy and mean, when she could recall a time where he’d been over the moon about an old VCR he’d bought off someone.

“I mean I’ll still go. Fuck Jimmy and his ridiculous sleeping schedule.” He glanced at Hana, his soured frown lifting into a smile. “You wanna come instead? I don’t mind going by myself, but it’d be more fun with company.”

“I’d love to, but me and Mai were going to work on that joint essay for Shizuka.” she sighed.

“We have until like Tuesday dude, _go._ Look at weird old things, have fun.” Mai poked her in the cheek. “When’s the last time you left campus anywho?”

“Uhh…” Hana _maybe_ didn’t get out as much as she should’ve. She preferred being invited rather than doing the inviting, and going off somewhere off campus her own wasn’t her style

“Eh, I don’t leave much either.” Ian said as he pushed the pasta on his place around with his spoon

“Shut-in.” Jeff mumbled. Hana wasn’t aware he was even paying attention to the conversation. She thought he’d fallen asleep at the table and hadn’t questioned it..

Ian raised his eyebrows and smirked. “I prefer to call it _selective socialization._ ”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Hana shook her head and chuckled to herself. Not getting out much was something she and Ian certainly had in common. She wouldn’t go so far as to call either of them _shut-ins_ though. They’d be out about today at least.

* * *

 

Ian had brought Hana into a store that proclaimed its name ( _Ed Violet’s Electronics_ ) in a neon sign that, had it been nighttime, would’ve glowed a bright purple.

She followed him around with interest. She didn’t know if the electronics and parts in this place were actually anything Ian wanted to look at, but it was sort of cool to see all this older stuff hanging around.  As their time in the store wore on though, it appeared Hana was far more interested in it than Ian was.

“Man I think this place might be a bust.” he said, putting the camera he’d been examining back onto the shelf and starting to move onwards to the next aisle

As they waved through shelves and shelves of various electronics Hana’s head kept bobbing side to side. “Were you trying to find something specific?”

Shaking his head, Ian sighed “I was hoping for more retro stuff, not ten year old TVs and DVD players. They don't even have any VHS tapes here. ”

Remembering how enthusiastic he’d been for this outing, Hana felt bad. The more they walked, the more his posture slumped. As stuck his hands in his pocket with clear loss of interest,Hana was saddened by how let down he was.

Perhaps it was luck, or just that Ian was only halfheartedly skimming through the shelves now, but it was Hana who spotted something out of place among this older, but still somewhat modern technology. Something about it, perhaps the antenna, caught her eye. Curious, she turned to the shelf to pick it up and examine it closer. It was heavier than it looked.

It was a little TV, not even a foot long, that made her feel bad for calling the one Mai had just gotten small. The long handle going across the top told her it was meant to be a portable one. With interest, Hana noticed it also had a dial and several little knobs. That was the sign of a pretty old TV, right? Maybe Ian would be interested in this; it could very well just be a replica of some sort, but he still might like it for the old fashioned aesthetic.

Noticing Hana’s attention being captured, Ian stopped and went back to her. “What’ve you got there?”

She held the TV by the handle and lifted it up so that he could get a good look at it. “Some kind of TV? It looks a lot older than the other stuff here.”

“Woah you’re right…” he said as he leaned down to inspect it. Hana handed it off to him so he could have a better look and she could rest her arms.(It was heavier than it looked, especially for her scrawny noodle arms.) With his free hand he flipped the switch on and off, then started playing with the dial and knobs. As he did so, she could see his mouth turning up into an almost awestruck smile and a rare twinkle grace his eyes

“Man this thing looks like it could be from the 60s, maybe even the late 50s...” He was lighting up more and more at the mere thought of that. “Hana, I’m so glad you spotted this.”

Needless to say, Ian brought the TV up to the counter right away and bought it without a second thought. Having already found a gem like that, he saw no need to scout the rest of the store for more. Hana smiled, watching the spring in his step on the way to the train station with their find, cherishing seeing one of her best friends so happy.


	2. Chapter 2

While not quite as peppy (well, peppy for Ian) as he’d been after they’d left the shop, Ian was noticeably more cheerful over the next couple of days. He’d been putting a lot of time into messing with the TV, so the next meal Hidden Block all had together was filled with his chatter about it.

“I’ve got it working, or at least turning on. I’m not sure if I can get it to pick up any channels but I’m gonna look into it and try. That’d be so _sweet_.”

Light laughter rang out from Jeff’s spot at the table.

“When’s the wedding? ‘Cause you sound ready to marry the thing.” Jeff said, cocking a smile as he teased his friend. All in good fun, but Ian kind of...dimmed in demeanor, and he scowled at Jeff.

“We can get Jared to officiate, I bet he’d love that.” Wallid added. He looked up, spreading his hands and one could almost picture his vision for the absurd hypothetical wedding appearing before his eyes.

“Oh! I call best man!” Jimmy said

“No way dude, that’s all me.” Jeff replied. “And Hana can be the flower girl. I mean that’s usually a kid but with a name like hers it’d be a wasted opportunity not to.” A small blush tinted her face at being roped into the teasing, but she kept her gaze on Ian, who soured further at their every word.

“Wallid, you down for making our friend a sick ass cake for the special day?” Jeff continued anyway.

“Duh. And Luke’s obviously the entertainment.”

“Alright guys c’mon, give him a break.” A chuckle escaped Luke’s mouth but it was an uneasy one. His eyes were on Ian as well, and he had turned a shade of red, and from the way he wasn’t making eye contact with anyone looked pretty...embarrassed.

“ _I'm_ not going to the wedding.” Caddy declared.

“No you’re not, _because there isn’t going to be one._ ” after raising his voice significantly, Ian stood up with a _screech_ of his chair and left the table in a huff. The sound of his footsteps wasn’t _quite_ stomping but it was certainly heavier than his usual tread. The ruckus gained him, and the Hidden Block table several onlookers. Hana sunk lower in her chair.

“Ian we were just messing with you! We didn’t mean anything by it.” Jimmy called after him, but it fell on deaf ears.

Turning back from Ian’s disappearing form, Hana frowned at her other friends. “I think you guys took that a little too far.” Ian usually didn’t get too riled up at getting messed with. She’d seen him get _exasperated_ , but the outburst and storming off was uncharacteristic of him.

“He’ll be fine Hana. He gets steamed sometimes but he’ll cool off, give him an hour.” Caddy said. To be fair, he probably had a lot of experience with pissing off Ian but...

“Yeah but man…” Luke crinkled his nose and scratched his neck. “He doesn’t get that pumped up over stuff too often and you kinda just gave him crap for it.”

If everyone’s faces falling simultaneously was any indication, they hadn’t considered that like Hana and apparently Luke had. Being shut down for getting excited about something had always felt horrid to Hana, and part of her wondered if Luke had had similar experiences with that too. Hana knew that the taunting wasn’t mean spirited in the slightest and she was sure Ian did too, but she could just picture the sick, heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach when that happened to her.

A tense silence hanging in the air, the rest of the club dispersed to dump their trays and head off to their classes. A hand grabbed Hana’s shoulder after she and Luke met up with Mai by the Normal Boots table. It belonged, to Jeff who’s typically easy going and sunny face was downright downcast.

“Hey...Hana, when you get to class can you tell Ian I’m sorry about starting all that?”

“I’ll tell him you want to apologize, but you really should do that yourself Jeff.” Hana said, Luke making a noise of agreement. Mai looked at Hana puzzled, and she mouthed “I’ll explain later”.

* * *

 

The trio weren’t the first ones to enter the classroom, though they came in ahead of the majority. The two occupants of the room were Ian and Shane, and the latter's head popped up from what he was drawing and nodded at them. His eyes slid from them to Ian and then back, an eyebrow raising just a bit-presumably at them coming back from lunch separately.

There was a small comfort in that Ian didn’t appear any more or less grumpy than usual. (Though it still bummed Hana out that his more upbeat disposition from earlier was absent now.) He didn’t ignore them when they said hi, or when Luke plopped into the seat next to him. Then again, the rest of Hidden Block weren’t in this class, and a pessimist might say he was only acting normally because they weren’t the ones who had given him shit.

Ian didn’t strike Hana as one to take things like that too personally though, not from his best friends. Wanting space right afterwards she could see, but holding a grudge? No.

(Disregarding whatever his and Caddy’s deal was of course. Hana still didn’t understand where that came from.)

Everyone else filed in eventually, and Shizuka entered the room shortly after, signifying the beginning of the class. She wasn’t in the best of spirits, she wasn’t screaming and assigning five page papers, but her tone and going straight into a lecture definitely signified grumpiness.  Hana was okay with this, she wasn’t up for doing anything other than half listening. She was too distracted, and kept glancing over to Ian. He did seem a little spacey.

 _Come on Hana,_  she scolded herself. _He’s not that sensitive_. This mess was something she could see herself getting worked up over, and she still had a hard time reminding herself that not all people were as easily wounded as her. She tried shifting her focus back on Shizuka, who’d started up on a topic unrelated to the class material while Hana hadn’t been paying attention. It worked, Shizuka’s bitter tangents were typically more interesting to listen to than her actual lesson plans.

Hana was jolted out of the focus eventually, by the sound of a hand slapping down hard a desk.

“ _Mr. Macleod_ care to share your thoughts on the discussion?” Shizuka snapped, staring him down with a savage glare. Ouch. More than just grumpy.

Hana winced, she hadn’t been the only one who’d noticed him being lost in thought, then. But of all the days for Shizuka to choose Ian as her target to lash out at... 

“Huh? Uhh..”

“Of course you can’t. I can’t stand men who don’t listen when they’re being spoken to.” Shizuka let out an angry sigh, and muttered else something that Hana couldn’t hear from her seat. She left him alone to space back out after that.

“She really needs to raise her standards some more if all her dates are going so bad...” Mai whispered to Hana. She let out a tiny, half hearted giggle.

Shizuka claimed two other victims before the bell that signaled the end of class. At least it had apparently helped her some, she didn’t go too crazy with their homework.

Ian didn’t wait up for Hana or even Luke on the way out, but she rapidly caught up with him. He slowed his pace so she could keep up and gave her a halfhearted smile.

“Hey um…” she said. “Jeff wanted to talk to you about what happened at lunch-”

Ian sighed.

“Tell him he doesn’t have to. It’s whatever.” he said, catching Hana off guard. “I know they were just trying to liven things up, I was getting into all kinds of boring technical shit.”

“I didn’t think it was boring!” she assured him.

Ian’s eyebrows lifted and he smirked in a way that implied that he didn’t entirely believe her. “ _Really_ now.”

“Really! I didn’t exactly follow everything but...” she smiled. “It’s nice seeing you excited. And you looked so...not excited after.”

Ian crossed his arms.“Yeah, alright I was a little pissed. I can’t exactly deny that after I stomped off like I did. But it was just an ‘in the moment’ kind of thing, seriously. I’m not angry at them or anything.” he paused.

“Except James. I’m _always_ mad at James.”  

Hana laughed. Okay, she felt a lot better about the whole thing now. If Ian didn’t see the rest of Hidden Block first, she was glad she could relay to them they needn’t worry. Ian held the door open as they exited Poppy Hall and waved as he started to split off to head to Bluebelle.

“I’m gonna tinker with my boring little TV. See you at dinner?”

“Yep!” Hana waved at him as well and ventured off her own way to get to the library.

* * *

 

Ian didn’t show for dinner.

At first the others thought it was because he was still upset with them for what happened at lunch, but Hana _assured_ them that he’d said he wasn’t. And she was worried.

“Hana, he might’ve just said that because he didn’t want you worked up about him.” Mai said, resting her chin on her hand.  “He doesn’t like having people fussing over him right?”

That last part was kind of true, but Hana shook her head. Ian had sounded genuine when he said he wasn’t ticked off at the others anymore. “I’m pretty sure if Ian was still mad the guys he wouldn’t have said he was coming to dinner.”

“He could’ve gotten mad about it again.” Wallid suggested, looking like someone had kicked kitten in front of him. “Man...I’m starting to feel really bad about that.”

Hana had to admit Wallid had a point there. It’d been a couple hours, that was plenty of time to think about it some more and get worked up again. Anger could ebb and flow like the tide, one moment you’re fine, you’re past it, but the next all the rage floods over you again.

“If he’s in the room after this I’ll see if anything’s still up.” Luke said. “He wasn’t there when I got back earlier.”

Remembering his comment about going to his room to work on his TV, Hana opened her mouth to express confusion. Then she thought better of it. If he got upset again he could have very well changed his mind about doing that, seeing as the TV in question is what his friends had been teasing him over...

She really hoped this all blew over by tomorrow.


	3. Interlude: Welcome to Televoid

A small frown of concentration on his face, Ian was fiddling with the TV, trying to get it to pick up _something._

Honestly, even if it picked up audio and nothing else, he’d consider it a success. He wouldn’t just junk the TV if it didn’t of course, not picking anything up was, realistically, more likely than it being able to. He’d be a little disappointed certainly, but he could always hook something else like a VCR up to it. Signal or no signal he liked the very fact that he owned it.

Even if the rest of his clubmates thought it was lame.

“Alright let’s just try this….” he mumbled as he kept messing with the antenna. Should he try doing this with _every_ channel? Yeah, probably... The old thing didn’t have that many after all, it couldn’t take him too long to find something if it was there, he figured.

In fact, about three channels later he started hearing something. Ian’s face lit up like a christmas tree. He truly hadn’t been expecting anything.

“ _Ha!_ ” he said to himself. He turned the volume dial up to hear it more clearly. It was still too garbled to decipher anything but it sounded like talking. Moving the antenna here and there he started to hear it a bit better. Not talking, he noted, whispering. He wondered what the hell he was picking up on, he still couldn’t make out any words and as the quality got better it sounded like it was actually a lot of people whispering over each other.

Fucking _weird_. Cool, but weird.

Every part of him buzzed with excitement. Literally, he could feel static electricity from the thing prickling his skin oddly enough and maybe that should’ve clued him in that something was off, but he was too eager. He had to keep keep going, keep messing with it. He almost imagined the whispers to be egging him on. Their mere existence was almost taunting, he felt it was _just_ garbled enough for him to not make out.

Ian kept going. The static electricity kept tingling over him and getting more and more intense. Maybe he should stop, there was still no picture...though the noise did seem to be changing. What if he-

“Ow, ow, _FUCK!_ ” he hissed, jumping back in surprise as jolt of electricity surged through him. _Jesus,_  he hadn’t been expecting that to happen. The TV had gone quiet too. Shit... Ian opened his eyes, dreading that he would find it completely fried.

Well, one could say a bright side was that he didn’t open his eyes to see a broken TV.  However he didn’t see much of anything when he opened his eyes. He was greeted by empty darkness. For a moment he feared that somehow the shock had affected his vision.

Ian was proven wrong quickly, seeing a few things when he swiveled his head. A chair...a plant...and another TV that was different from his, bigger, not portable, but still old fashioned. And an equally old fashioned camera?

Wha...What the fuck. Where was this? How the _fuck_ was he not in his dorm room right now?

He slowly got up and started taking in his surroundings, heart thudding. The walls and floor were a deeper black than he thought was possible, and there were no doors nor windows. The way the light the static on the tv cast looked to just taper off, it was almost as if he was floating in some kind of empty void.

 _I’m dreaming...I’ve got to be dreaming._ Ian told himself. The shock had managed to knock him out and he was having one of those crazy lucid dreams, that had to be it. He shut his eyes and willed himself to wake up on the floor of his room.

Ian’s eyes met black walls once more.

He pinched himself. Still there.

Desperate, he _slapped himself in the face._

_Ow._

Nope.

This was real. This...this was an actual thing that was happening to him right now. He had actually been moved into some room out of a nightmare.

 _This was happening._ But how? It felt instantaneous to him, but maybe time had passed between him being knocked to the floor and getting up. Had he blacked out when he got that shock? And...and what? That didn’t explain how he _got_ here. He’d blacked out and someone had managed to sneak past god knows how many people in the school to steal him away to some empty room?

Ian started searching the place again for a secret door or _something_ . There had to be _some_ kind of way in and out, his presence itself dictated that.  He walked over to the walls of the room, intent to find some kind of secret door of some kind...only to keep going.

This room was bigger than he thought.

Ian kept walking, surely he had to hit the walls of the room soon enough right? How big could this place even be? As he kept walking further and further into the darkness though, his heart thudded. This...wasn’t an ordinary room, was it? Certainly not anything that was contained in a house. Way too big for that.

Eventually Ian saw light ahead of him and ran for it, desperate for escape. He was out of breath and tripped up when he realized the source of the light.

The TV.

He was right back in the part of this place he’d woken up in. Ian wanted to say he’d gotten turned around but **knew** he’d been walking in a straight line and approached this area from behind where he’d left.

He had to accept that this was more than a room, and there was no exit. At least none that he could find. All he found squinting through the darkness was what looked like a light bulb dangling from a high ceiling (With no obvious way to turn it on of course.) He couldn’t get out of here. Ian was stuck in this...this _void,_  with just this stupid broken tv and _stupid potted plant._ He let himself fall into the chair, trembling.

This was happening. Ian was trapped, helpless. Any attempt at escape would just put him right back here. He put his head in his hands, starting to feel lightheaded. He wanted to cry.

He lifted his head up. Deep breaths Ian. Calm down. For all you know, that camera could be rolling… He looked over at it, checking to see if there was a light on. There was. He scowled at it. Nope. He was turning that off. If he was going to have a fucking _panic attack_ like hell he was going to do it for an audience.

He walked over to it and to his utter frustration, it had no buttons, no controls on it. What the actual fuck? Was it controlled remotely or something?

What _was_ on it he noticed, was a singular note card, like one might use to jot down notes or remember lines for a speech. He picked it up and found three words written on the opposite side.

Welcome to _Televoid!_


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, it was plain as day to Hana that something was going on. Fifteen minutes into class, she realized Ian hadn’t shown up. He didn’t enjoy school by a long shot, but he wasn’t one to skip class unless he was really sick.

The worry gnawing at her stomach only intensified when she met eyes with Luke, who looked even more anxious than she felt. Had something happened last night?Hana’s fretting over Ian in class yesterday had absolutely nothing on this. At least he’d been there so she could see something was up, rather than just sit wondering what was going on, why Luke had that look on his face…

Mai spent most of class quietly reassuring Hana, which she was grateful for, but it did little to stop the nagging thoughts. She couldn’t let herself think nothing was wrong when something about Ian’s absence was clearly bothering Luke too. So naturally she bolted out her chair the second the bell rang, heading straight for him. She grabbed his arm and tugged at it.

“Did something happen? Why didn’t Ian come to class?” Hana asked. Did she sound overly anxious?

Luke chewed his lip. “I uh...Let’s talk about this somewhere else.”

Oh god.

Mai and Hana hurried behind him, falling behind at times because Luke and his ridiculously long legs scurried to their destination. Somewhere else turned out to be the Hidden Block clubroom, which was probably the least likely place they’d be interrupted or overheard. (What was going on that required privacy?) While people tended to eavesdrop and try to peek into the Normal Boots club room they just...avoided theirs. Hidden Block’s reputation for being seriously weird had definite benefits.

After Hana and Mai were ushered inside by him, Luke looked around outside and then came in and locked the door behind him. He took a long pause before speaking, like he didn’t want to say what he was about to “Ian didn’t come back to the room last night.”

“ _What!?_ ” Hana’s jaw dropped, and Mai’s eyes widened. That...wasn’t like him. At all.

”Yeah, his phone and jacket were there so I went to bed thinking he was maybe taking a walk or something and would come back while I was sleeping, but he didn’t. I don’t know what to do.”

Hana felt her stomach turn.

“He’s not dating anyone he could’ve been sneaking off to see, is he?” Mai tapped her fingers against the wall, definitely becoming nervous herself in spite of her optimistic suggestion.

“Not that I know, and if he was, I don’t think he’d skip class after…” Luke slumped against one of the desks. “Do we tell someone? I mean it hasn’t been a day yet. It just isn’t like him, Ian’s all for getting his alone time but not like this.”

Hana nodded, “I think so, if he doesn’t show up to lunch or class. I’ve heard the administration can be questionable here but they can’t ignore a student _disappearing_ right?”

“They could _try_ but shit would go down once Ian’s family found out.” Mai said.  “...I think we should tell Shizuka instead of going straight to them though. She may be nutty but she’s protective as hell over her students. She’ll make sure it doesn’t stay quiet.”

Luke let out a sigh. “Man I hope he turns up at lunch and we don’t have to. This is freaking me out.”

Hana wholeheartedly agreed. Nothing would be better news than this being some weird misunderstanding and finding Ian sitting at their table.

As they feared though, there was no sign of their friend in the cafeteria. They managed to dance around the question of where Ian was when they’d finally sat down to eat, in case he did show up eventually. However when class ended that day it signaled the time for avoiding the situation was over. It was was getting close to an entire day without anyone seeing him.

Hana made like she was just taking her time putting her work away and organizing her things; Mai had gone on ahead at her insistence. She didn’t want to get her roommate even more involved in all of this by having her confront Miss Shizuka with Luke. It made sense for just the two of them, Luke was Ian’s roommate and Hana...Well it looked like Hana was the last person who had seen him. The thought brought chills down her spine.

The class had mostly emptied, a boy lingered talking to Miss Shizuka about something, Luke was standing a short distance behind him...and PBG was hanging around by his desk, looking directly in Hana’s direction. He was waiting up for her.

Unsure what else to do, Hana made her way towards Luke to wait for Miss Shizuka’s attention with him. She was intercepted by PBG’s tall, friendly form.

“Hey!” his greeting was as cheerful as ever. Completely unaware of the fearful thoughts running through her head.

“Hi PBG.” she answered him politely, but maneuvered her line of sight past his shoulder to see if the other student was done talking with their teacher yet.

“Hey so I was wondering, I’m having trouble with the stuff that’s coming up on tomorrow’s test and I kinda need some help. If I fail another one, the coach is threatening to suspend me from the team. D’you mind helping me study?” PBG’s face was fairly light for someone facing possible consequences like that, a pleading smile present.

It was a request Hana normally wouldn’t deny, but today was just not the day. She had to decline. “I would but um. I need to talk to Miss Shizuka about something.”

“I can wait up!”

“That’s sweet, but it er could take a while? It’s...personal I guess.” Hana hated being vague and shutting a friend down like that but it didn’t seem exactly like the best time to explain the whole situation to PBG.

“Oh…” he trailed off, disappointment written all over him. “Is everything alright? You _have_ been looking kinda nerved up since yesterday.”

“It’s a long story.” Now wasn’t that the truth?  “But it’ll be fine. I’m sorry I can’t help you with studying, maybe you could ask Shane?”

“Yeah I could do that...” he appeared distant for a moment. “Well...See you around?”

“See you.” she said. With that he left the classroom, looking dejected. What was that about? Shane would be better help with test prep than Hana ever would.

The classroom now only held her, Luke, and Miss Shizuka, who was starting to grab her things to go. Now or never.

“Miss Shizuka?” Luke grabbed her attention once Hana was at his side

“Oh, Luke.” she acknowledged him, and her hands went to a pile of paper on her desk. “I’m assuming you wanted to grab an extra copy of the study guide for Ian?

“Um….” he drew out the sound, clearly unsure of how to approach this. He straightened his hat, stalling for time. “Not exactly...it’s _about_ Ian though.”

The worry nagging at the pair evidently was transparent, Miss Shizuka put her things back down on her desk and her face softened. “Is he having a problem?”

“You could...say that.” Luke said. Miss Shizuka raised her eyebrows at him, indicating that she wanted him to just get to the point. In fairness to him though, this was a hard, serious thing to just spring on a teacher. Hana played with her tie, trying to figure out just how to do so herself.

“Nobody’s seen Ian since yesterday.” She finally spoke up in a small voice. “He didn’t come to dinner after he said he would...”

Hana speaking first giving him the confidence to talk about it, Luke continued on for her. “And he hasn’t been in the room. He must’ve gone back at some point because his phone was there, and this TV he’s been working on was out but...He wasn’t there when I went to bed and it didn’t look like he came back at all when I woke up.”

Miss Shizuka pursed her lips. “Are you sure no one has seen or heard from him? Or he’s not goofing off somewhere? This isn’t about me not believing you two, it’s that this could get very serious, you know that right?”

“Yes, that’s why we didn’t tell you right away. We’ve asked around and everything.” Hana said, looking down. “It...It really isn’t like Ian at all to do this...We’re worried he could be hurt somewhere or...”

Miss Shizuka put a hand on Hana’s shoulder. “All right, I’ll have a word with campus security for now. If they don’t find him around then...We will have to contact the police, and his family.”

A small shudder ran through Hana after she said ‘police’. This really brought the graveness of the situation even further into the light, it scared her. Ian might actually be a missing person. She imagined what the police getting involved would entail...investigations, scouring the campus and the town….and his family. If she, Luke, and Mai were worried for him she couldn’t even imagine how scared they would be.

Hana became aware of the hand on her shoulder tightening in grip then letting go and she let out a deep breath. Had she not been breathing for a moment there? “Miss Mizuno, I think it would be best for you two to go back to your rooms, maybe lie down for a while. I’m sure the stress is taking a toll on you.”

Luke’s arm around her shoulder replaced Miss Shizuka’s hand, and from the faint trembling Hana knew the gesture was as much support for himself as it was for her.. “Yeah...she’s right. I’ll walk you back to Primrose.”

Hana had extreme doubt that she’d be able to get any rest while this was happening but there wasn’t really much else to do about it.


	5. Interlude: Test Broadcast

Ian had lost track of how long he’d been stuck in this room, just staring into the tv static. Enough time that he’d been able to tear the furniture apart looking for a way out and then put it back together again more than once. But there was nothing, not under the plant or the chair or the _stupid broken TV_ that didn’t play anything.

Being here was screwing with his sense of time. He felt like he’d been trapped for so long already, but he didn’t feel hungry, or tired like he should be.(He’d _tried_ sleeping multiple times too. Tried sleeping away what he had still been hoping was a nightmare, but he simply wouldn’t fall asleep. ) He wanted to say in that case he _must_ be imagining and his mind exaggerating how long he’d been here but…

His hand went to his cheek and rubbed at the stubble there. His beard never grew much in a matter of a day, that’s for sure. So he’d _had_ to have been here for few days at least. Just...for some reason his body wasn’t breaking down from not sleeping or eating.

Well he’d been somehow _teleported_ to this place so maybe something about this room made it so he didn’t need anything. Sure. _Why not?_ Was it really that much crazier than what had already happened?

He started desperately playing with the knob again when...something _different_ happened for the first time since he’d been here.

The room’s light went on. And...with that came the feeling that he was being _watched..._

He turned the knob again.

The static faded, he could hear sound coming from the TV. Something was _on!_ He stared at the picture in awe. It wasn’t freedom from the void, but it was freedom from staring into the white noise, freedom from nothing but static buzzing in his ears.

Ian turned to the camera, and words came out of his mouth before he even realized what he was doing.

“Oh hey, you’re just in time to watch something with me…” he spoke, as if he was addressing an audience, and was compelled to keep talking. He begun to explain the game show that was playing like he was an expert on it, despite never having seen it in his life.

What was going on? Why was he saying all this? Why couldn’t he stop?

He continued, eventually smoothly transitioning into actually talking about what was going on. It went on like this for the duration of the program. He spoke and made comments and jokes like an expert, like he was reviewing something he’d seen before. Aside from the bits of information at the beginning, it was all stuff he knew he would’ve thought of, stuff he’d _say._  It was just worded better than his initial reactions should be. It didn’t feel like the words were being fed to him per se...it was like...like he was remembering lines from a script that he’d written himself.

Various times throughout watching it, props appeared out of nowhere and he knew exactly what to do with them, what jokes to make. Somehow, despite how wrong this all should be, Ian got completely caught up in doing it, he was actually getting into the show, getting into talking about it… Maybe it was the days of isolation getting to him but he was having _fun._  He liked performing for the audience he somehow was aware was watching him.

Eventually, it ended going back to static, and he faced the camera with a smile. He was still performing, but the words were now more completely his own. It wasn’t like he was working off the script anymore, more like he was just putting on an almost Jared-esc showboaty act.  “And don’t feel like you have to leave now! Stick around and let’s see what’s coming up next!”

There was something up next right? There had to be. That show had only been half an hour long, that wasn’t enough. Not after _days_ with nothing!

Ian stared, waiting. _Come on...Come on…_ He gently slapped the side of the TV.

He tried turning the knob, again and again.

Oh god please. _Something._

The feeling of being watched was vanishing. One might take that as a good thing, and at any other point in his life, Ian would have. But now it just made him feel lonely again. The chipper act he managed to put on went away with it.

He was alone again. And he hated it.


	6. Chapter 6

In a day or so, Ian’s disappearance went from something Hana, Mai and Luke discussed quietly in an empty classroom to something whispered about around the school. Campus security turned up nothing, so the police had been called in their stead. Not everyone knew that it was Ian who was missing but all were aware that _somebody_ was when cops arrived to the school. That much had gotten around.

Hana….Hana was having trouble processing this. Barring the months before her mother’s death as that was something else entirely, she’d never experienced fearing for someone else’s safety like this. She’d been worried sick about people yeah, but none of her friends had just up _and disappeared_ before!

She felt sick. The anxiety of what could be happening to her friend right now was practically gnawing through her stomach. So sick she felt, she was lying in bed rather than attending class, not confident in her ability to make it through the day. Mai had accepted that with no argument beyond “Are you sure?” and promised to take good notes for her to look at later.

It just. It didn’t make _any sort of sense_ to her. Ian had definitely gone back to Bluebelle, she’d seen him on his way there and his phone had been back at the dorm. He wasn’t the forgetful type, if he had left the dorm and _especially_ if he’d gone off campus he’d have taken the phone with him. Hana was sure of it. But what did that leave? Someone _kidnapping_ him?

Hana inhaled sharply. It was the obvious thought. The one the police had to have been thinking as well. Hana urged herself not to consider it though. _Do not think about that._ _Do not_ think about the possibility of someone managing to sneak into the dorm and grab one of your friends in broad daylight and not get caught and stealing him away to...

Hana let out something halfway between a whine and a groan and flopped over from her back to her stomach. Staying here, left to her wandering, anxious thoughts wasn’t helping. Maybe she should’ve sucked it up and gone to class. At least in class there were distractions.

There was also Ian’s empty seat and the worried faces of all his other friends there, and plenty of time to lose interest in her lessons and work herself up about this anyway, she reminded herself. All right, maybe not. It was pretty much a lose-lose situation for her, wasn’t it?

She sat up and stretched and reached for the remote that Mai had left on the desk. Watching TV, that was a thing she could distract herself with. God the timing of them getting this was near impeccable. Hana flipped through the channels, until settling on some documentary. Those were always good at holding her attention. A calm narrator explaining facts was just so easy to get wrapped up into…

Time flowed by quickly, and thankfully the program kept Hana’s mind from drifting to her uneasy thoughts too often. Nasty reminders popped into her head every now and then, but it was nowhere near the constant stream of horrible possibilities she’d been going through earlier. After not sleeping well the night before, she even managed to doze off a little bit. The sick feeling in her stomach had calmed down as well by the time Mai was back from her morning classes.

“Hey.” she came in, waving and closed the door in a more gentle manner than usual. She held a plastic bag that looked to be from the store by the cafeteria’s in one of her hands. “You doing alright?”

“Doing better.” Hana said, sitting up in her bed and fixing the jumbled mess her hair had become from lying on it. “As...better as I can at least.”

“Good. You hungry?”

Hana’s stomach growled at the thought of food. She hadn’t eaten breakfast. Or much of dinner the night before. It was amazing how terribly complicated and unappealing simple things like eating could become when you were in low spirits. She should remedy that though. “I could eat.”

“Okay good, ‘cause I already grabbed some stuff.” Mai reached into the bag and pulled out a couple of wrapped sandwiches. “I thought we could just eat in here. There’s like, _waaay_ too many people hounding the rest of Hidden Block trying to get their noses into what’s going on, I figured you might want to avoid that.”

Hana accepted one of the sandwiches from Mai and glowered at the carpet, imagining it to be any of the number of students who were bugging her friends..“Like any of us know more about what happened than the rest of the school...I _wish_ we did. Then they might actually have something to go off of while they look for him...”

“Yeah seriously, it’s stupid.” Mai settled down next to her on the bed and started unwrapping her sub vigorously. “And of course Mimi is gonna be the absolute worst about it, I’m sure. I’m glad you and Luke weren’t in class for her to pull her fake sympathy bullshit on.” she took an aggressive bite out of her sandwich.

“Luke didn’t come in?” Hana stopped midway through lifting her sandwich to her mouth  “I mean, not that that’s surprising…”

“Nope. Shane and PBG said they checked in on him and he wasn’t feeling it either.” Mai chewed her lip. “Though I’m not sure how good it feels staying in their room, Ian’s stuff scattered around and everything.”

“I don’t think I could do it.”  Hana admitted, seeing as she didn’t feel ready to face his _seat_ in Shizuka’s class. “Um, how are _they_ doing. Normal Boots I mean? I haven’t seen too much of them since the other day and they’re his friends too after all…”

“I think they’d be lying through their teeth if they said this wasn’t really screwing with them. You can tell, even with Shane.” Mai twirled and tugged on a strand of her hair. “I just really hope the police turn up something soon. I know it’s only been like a day and half since they got involved but there’s gotta be something right?”

Hana wanted to believe, and nodded. She couldn’t bring herself to think they hadn’t made _any_ progress. At the end of the day, after realizing how little being cynical did for her, Hana was an optimist. Having hope was important. “You would think…”

“Yeah because... I mean the school has cameras. Not everywhere…but at least at the entrances to most of the buildings. They should’ve seen...” she covered her mouth and shook her head vigorously. “Oh gosh what am I doing. I’m just gonna get you worked up talking about this aren’t I?”

“Mai, it’s okay. Not talking about it is probably worse than facing it head on…” Hana smiled at her friend’s concern “You’re right though. There’s definitely cameras when you get into the dorm so they’d at least know if and when Ian left at some point. Maybe they’re only giving updates to his family?”

“Yeah maybe. I can see the school telling them to keep it as _hush-hush_ as humanly possible.” Mai scowled, and their was an angry glimmer in her eyes like she had a personal beef with the school’s treatment of stuff like this. “Hell, they probably cares more about their _reputation_ tanking if it got public a student went missing in the middle of campus than if Ian is _actually okay_ or not.”

Hana wanted to inject that she didn’t think administration at Asagao was that heartless but Mai had been going here for much longer than her and there was that look about her just a moment ago...

After they both finished their food, Hana stood up and grabbed her hair ribbon from her nightstand. “I’m gonna get dressed. I don’t think I want to miss the whole day.” she decided. She’d see how much better or worse going to class would be. Hana had to face it,, and go back to her regular routine eventually. She should do that sooner rather than later.

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did, but good to hear you’re up to it.” Mai said with a smile, putting her hand gently on Hana’s back, sending a surge of warmth and confidence into her. She could do this.


	7. Chapter 7

A week. A whole week had gone by since the police had started investigating Ian’s disappearance and there was _absolutely nothing_ to show for it. A week that was maddening for all of Ian’s friends, fraught with frustration and stress. Was there honestly _nothing_? No evidence? Or was it what Mai suspected, them knowing something but keeping it top secret to preserve the school’s reputation?

Frustration was what led to her and Mai both being up past two in the morning on a school night. They’d _tried_ to go to bed at ten, but around an hour ago had decided to just give up for the time being.  Hana was scribbling at some homework at her desk, figuring she might as well get a head start on it while she was up. Mai was sprawled upside down, head lolling over the side of her mattress and flicking through the TV channels. Not much was on at this hour though.

Moving into a more natural and probably less neck aching position, Mai left it on some static and hopped down off her bed. “I’ll be right back, bathroom.”

Hana made a noise to indicate she’d heard her and creased her eyebrows at the work, scratching her head. Ugh...her damage calculations were off, she’d forgotten to take into account the elements the monster in this scenario were weak against. What were they again?

Hana looked at her phone. Maybe 2:34am wasn’t the time to be doing math homework…

Almost precisely when the clock had changed to 2:35, Hana heard music coming from the TV. She turned her head, expecting to see Mai back in the room even though she hadn’t heard the door. She lifted her eyebrows, Mai wasn’t back yet but the TV was playing something now. Huh, weird. The channel must’ve lost it’s signal and just gotten it back or something.

Hana went back to staring at her homework and debated whether she should leave it for the night and just watch TV with Mai when she got back.

 _“Hello and welcome to the first episode of_ Televoid _!”_

Hana dropped her pencil. That...that _voice_ . That was a voice she hadn’t heard in over a week… She shook her head out of those thoughts immediately. No,no, you’re being silly Hana. You just miss him and you’re hearing things. Just look at the TV it’s only someone who _sounds_ a lot like-

Ian.

Ian was right there on their TV. Hosting this show.

_“-bet you're wondering who I am, where I am…”_

This was not possible. Yet there he was, it had to be him, even though his beard was more grown out than Hana had ever seen it, even though he seemed way more chipper than Ian generally was, it had to be him. He was even wearing the Asagao uniform, she could see the collared shirt under a purple hoodie she knew he sometimes wore when his club jacket wasn’t warm enough.

How was this possible?

_“Let me explain.”_

Hana’s attention jolted back to the TV at what for a moment she thought was him actually answering her question. No he was just explaining the show. Deep breaths Hana. He’s about to say who he is, it’s probably just your imagination getting carried away and seeing things that aren’t there. Lots of people wore collared shirts, and there had to be plenty of people with that hoodie.

_“My name is Ian and I'm stu-”_

Whatever he was going to say was immediately garbled and the TV went right back to static but Hana didn’t really pay much attention past that. Separately she could’ve taken the host looking kind of like Ian, sounding like him, or dressing a bit like him and brushed it off as her imagination exaggerating similarities because she missed him but…

Hana lived a life full of strange and uncanny coincidences and she’d learned to accept them but this was _too much_ to just be that. All of this, on top of him being named Ian couldn’t just be that. No way. This was her friend. Her missing friend was right there in front of her on the TV screen.

The second Mai slipped through the door, Hana yelped at her and pointed at the TV. “Mai! Mai look!”

“What? What’s wrong?” her voice was serious and she was alert at Hana’s obvious freak out. She looked at the TV. Mai’s face scrunched up, not getting the urgency in her voice from what she saw.  “...Uh someone talking over an old bike safety PSA?”

“Just wait, and _listen_ to him!”

Mai’s expression contorted further, following Hana’s instruction and listening carefully to the voice. Did it not sound familiar to her!? Hana quickly grew impatient. Oh _come on,_ show him again. Show him so she doesn’t sound like a complete madwoman claiming that she saw someone who’s been MIA for a week on some weird show late at night.

When it went back to him and Mai subsequently flipped, Hana was reassured that she wasn’t going crazy.  

Mai spluttered her response, eyes wide as saucers. “What the _fuck!?_ That’s...That’s _Ian_ . What the actual… _How?_ ”

“I don’t know, the TV just...suddenly started showing this, and there he was! I...He even said his name was Ian, Mai, right before you got in here. And...he was going to explain why he was there but it got cut off I just…”

Mai put her hands on Hana’s shoulders. “Al...Alright we need to calm down and think about this.”

“No...we have to get someone!” Hana realized, bolting out of her seat, Mai grabbed her arm.

“Hana...who are we going to get at this hour? Everyone’s in bed and by the time we do find someone this….show might be over. Who’s gonna believe us and not think you just had a nightmare?”

Mai’s logic brought Hana straight back to reality. She was right, and then who’d believe them? Two scared teenagers who were worried about their friend claiming to see him on TV when they both should be sleeping? It sounded ridiculous, and Hana knew if anyone came to her claiming that she wouldn’t believe them…

“If only this cruddy thing had a dvr...Then that’d actually be a good plan.” Mai kicked at the ground, her attention falling back on the screen. “Should we just, watch this then? Or do you want me to turn it off?”

Hana didn’t hesitate with her answer.. “I want to watch the rest of it. I-I know it’s silly, it’s just a video of him but…”

Mai wrapped her arm around Hana’s shoulder  “You miss him, I getcha.This is weird as fuck and I still don’t understand how it’s happening but, I guess it’s good knowing he’s at least o-” Mai cut herself off, and searched her mind for the right word. It sounded like she’d been about to say “okay” but realized that maybe wasn’t the best way to phrase it. “Unhurt?”

 _...Alive_ was actually the first thing to jump to Hana’s mind, but she nodded. That was a much nicer way of putting it, and she didn’t want to broadcast the fact that she’d been afraid Ian might be gone for good. “Yeah. I’m glad he’s not hurt.”

The rest of the program was watched in silence. There were jokes and snarky comments mixed in throughout, but neither of them felt much like laughing, a smile would on occasionally tug at Mai’s lips but that was it. Some of them were similar to things Hana had heard Ian say before while watching stuff together, and it honestly made her heart hurt instead of making her giggle. She could almost picture them watching this together during one of their movie nights.

Hana didn’t know why Ian was on this show, why he was talking about this old PSA, but one thing was readily apparent to her and she didn’t know how to feel about it. He was _having fun._ Was it that strange? He did have a love for retro stuff, and certainly liked riffing on it. He was enjoying it a lot, really, he was smiling more broadly than Hana was used to seeing.

It was all just too off putting to Hana for her to actually enjoy it. Ian shouldn’t be there for one, he’d been taken away from the Academy to this...set. Then there was the way he was acting. He was smiling, excited, but it all felt a little too awkward, and a little too artificial. He was certainly reminiscing from some kind of script, putting on a _performance_. He looked like was enjoying it, but the more Hana saw the more she realized the smiling could be just that. A performance. An act.

Then there was the end, the awkwardness was at a high as he was closing out the show, reading off the cards.Those cards seemed so creepy to Hana. And…

_"I don't have a computer around here, so I'm not sure how I'm going to get those emails..."_

That just screamed _“Not okay”_ to Hana. Was he implying that the black room -- no it looked bigger than a room Hana realized. This _void_ that he was in was all there was? Was he just _trapped_ in there?

Of course he’s _trapped_ Hana, he wouldn’t out of the blue decide to ditch school, all his friends, and go host some weird tv show without telling anyone. And the fact that he was being made to ask for emails even though he didn’t know how he was going to get them was...well it definitely made it apparent he wasn’t in control at all here.

“This is.. _.not okay._ ” Mai said, the first of them to speak up since they decided to keep watching. “...I mean no shit it isn’t, but the way he said ‘just kind of waiting’ He sounded so _off_. This is _fucked_. Who’s making him do this?”

“Obviously...obviously whoever’s responsible for kidnapping him.” Hana replied, chewing her lip and staring at the static that had replaced the program once it ended. “That’s what it has to be, right? Someone took him to host this... _Televoid_ thing?”

“But why. Why take someone to do this instead of y’know _hiring someone?_ ” Mai demanded. “And I still want to know how the hell they got him out of the dorms during the day without anyone seeing.”

“None of this makes sense. I think we...we should go to bed. Approach this with a clear mind tomorrow...Er later today.” she corrected herself.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Mai said, stretching after being hunched next to Hana for the duration of the show.  “Thinking about this shit this late isn’t going to do us any good.”

They shut off the light and the tv, and both climbed into their bunks. Hana didn’t know that she’d get enough sleep to actually have a clear mind when she woke up but...sleep deprivation wasn’t going to help her either.


	8. Chapter 8

When Hana awoke to her alarm that morning she was having difficulty processing what had happened last night. Namely, she was genuinely struggling to remember if it actually _had_ happened or if it had all just been some messed up nightmare. At the very least, her dreams last night had included something about it.

The wisest course of action was to ask Mai obviously, but the redhead had slammed snooze on her phone the second her alarm had gone off. Even through her jumbled early morning mind, Hana could remember that they’d gone to bed late so, understandable. Probably smarter than Hana’s decision to just get up to be fair. It was amazing what an extra few minutes of sleep could feel like in the long run. Too late to entertain the idea of that for herself though.

Mai hit snooze a few more times while Hana got herself ready(So probably no breakfast today...ah well.) but eventually emerged from her bunk, clearly wanting desperately to crawl back into it.

“Morning.” she grumbled, hopping down onto the floor with a loud thud. She somehow maintained perfect balance while doing this despite how tired and delirious she looked.

“Morning.”

“ _Uuuugh_ .” Mai groaned, starting to slowly pull on the pieces of her uniform. “I wish we had a day off, I slept awful. I had this _messed up_ dream and I can’t stop thinking about. Do you think that’s a good excuse for ditching?”

Hana bit her lip, leaning more towards the ‘last night actually happened’ side now. What were the odds that her and Mai had both had screwy dreams last night? They were close as anything, but a psychic dream link was probably going a bit too far. Bracing herself in case she was dead wrong, and they both happened to have completely unrelated screwy dreams, she asked. “It...didn’t _happen_ to be about...seeing Ian on TV did it?”

Mai paled. “...Please tell me you’re secretly psychic and can see into my dreams and that _Televoid_ thing didn’t actually happen.”

Hana wished that were the case. She closed her eyes, accepting that with Mai’s recollection, what happened last night was no mere figment of her dreams. “I don’t know if I want to believe it either but…” She was starting to remember it more clearly, like the denial and doubt had been a dam stemming the flow of her memory. Ian’s overly cheerful acting, him reading instructions off those cards…

“Well... _shit_ .” Mai said, letting herself plop down into her chair as she brushed her hair. “God _damn_. How do we go to class and act like everything’s normal-well as ‘normal’ as the past week’s been-after seeing that?”

“...Hope nobody asks?” Hana asked. That’s the only plan she had. “It’s not like we don’t have other things going on, maybe nobody will.”

“Best bet I guess. We should tell someone eventually though, we just gotta figure out how to explain this without sounding crazy. We can’t just pretend we didn’t see him.” Mai stood up and after a quick look at the time, walked towards the door and Hana followed suit.

“We’d need proof...” Hana’s voice lowered to a soft whisper as they walked through the halls of the dorm. “Or, maybe someone else who saw it. We can’t be the _only ones_ right?”

“Hana it was on at like two thirty in the morning on a school night. On a channel that doesn’t look like it has a signal any other time. I hate to be the pessimist here but...” Mai paused as she slowed down to allow other girls to get ahead of them and out of hearing range. “I’m sure _some_ other people probably saw it but I’d be surprised if it was anyone else at Asagao. That’d be a freaky coincidence.”

“I guess the obvious thing is figure out how to get someone to watch it with us next time it’s on or... _Oh!_ Record it on our phones!” Hana said, voice picking up at her epiphany. A fourth year girl shot an odd look there way, making Hana turn red, but continued down the stairs and out into the first floor hall.

“Oh yeah…” Mai replied, scratching her chin. “It did say it’d be on again next week didn’t it? I guess we just try to play it cool in the meantime? _God_ I wish we’d thought of that last night.”

Hana did too but hell, they’d been sleep deprived and shocked out of their minds. That wasn’t exactly a combination that oft led to logical thinking. Unfortunate, yet understandable.

They fell into a silence as they exited the building into a good sized mob of students going off to class. The dorm had been fairly empty but this was too many people to risk discussing the events of last night anymore. Hana already wished it were next week, it wasn’t a huge breakthrough, they wouldn’t know where Ian was from the footage but it was proof he was out there, and maybe someone could trace the television signal…

Maybe they’d help get him home sooner.

Focused on the possibilities of how one would go about finding Ian from tracking the TV program, Hana only processed Mai’s “Watch it!” as she bumped into whatever she was supposed to be watching out for. Hana recoiled upon seeing it was a person, she froze and stuttered out an apology to...Nurse McPasta.

He waved it off and flashed his signature unsettling smile. “No need to apology, I don’t believe either of us were paying attention. Lost in thought this morning as well?”

“O-Oh not really.” Hana said, wondering if he could tell if she was lying. She didn’t want to invite any questions, saying there was nothing on her mind was a bit easier than coming up with something to _be_ on her mind. She have him a good natured, almost guilty smile. “I’m just extra tired this morning”

“That’s unfortunate, I do hope you weren’t up watching television like I was.” He laughed a surprisingly pleasant and non-menacing laugh as all too accurate statement made Hana freeze up. “I ought to start following my own advice better. Have a good day girls. Sleep better tonight!” The nurse waved cheerfully as he walked off away from Poppy Hall.

“That was weird.” Mai mumbled, shoving open the door and holding it out for Hana.

“Really? I think that’s the least weird I’ve ever seen him.” Hana replied, remembering all too well her first encounter with Nurse McPasta. It still stuck around in the back of her mind sometimes. (Seriously, _what the hell_ had he been lurking in that closet for?)

“Yeah but I still got chills up my spine. I mean _I hope you weren’t up watching TV?_ That’s almost too on the nose.”

“Mai, half the school was probably up late watching TV, he was just guessing.”  Hana said. That had shocked Hana too, but somehow she was finding herself the voice of reason. How often was she the one freaking out and making mountains of molehills?  Then again, she’d gotten used to being a sane voice of reason considering her the club she’d joined.

Morning classes that day passed by the same as every other in the past week, that is to say with Hana attempting desperately to pay more than partial attention and not to let her mind drift too much. Her grades had remained relatively the same, only taking barely if it all noticeable as strange hits, so she supposed she was doing a decent enough job at it.

Lunch was where things got harder for Hana. She was only half poking at her food, her mind starting to fail at not obsessing about what happened last night after managing for several hours. God, how could she sit on this information for a whole week? Her mind was so far gone in recollection and thought a tap on her shoulder nearly made her jump out of her seat. The loud yelp that escaped her commanded the club’s attention.

Half amused, half apologetic, Jeff smiled and moved his hand away from her. “Whoops. You doing okay there?”

“Huh? Uh...yeah.” she said, failing spectacularly at sounding convincing. Her friends’ eyes were all on her, and she flushed. She never liked having all eyes on her, especially when she’d done something on the more embarrassing side like show off how jumpy she could be.

“You sure? You were zoning out pretty hard into your broccoli, it doesn’t look that interesting. ” he tilted his head, then squinted at her veggies as if trying to see something there he hadn’t before. Her tension easing, Hana smiled.

“I’m just...tired.” She repeated the lie she’d told the nurse earlier. Might as well be consistent right? It wasn’t entirely false either. She followed it up with an absolutely true statement too. “Last night wasn’t a good night.”

Wallid sighed from across the table. “I get you there, I don’t think any of us have been having any good nights lately.”

There were noises of affirmation from around the table, and the subject seemed to dissipate for now. The club had been trying valiantly to maintain some semblance of normality, but despite their missing member generally being more on the quiet side, his absence was almost deafening. The smaller the group, the more stark the difference was when one of them wasn’t there. Mai had opted to sit with Normal Boots again that day, so it all felt even smaller.

Hana wasn’t feeling hungry any longer and lunch was fairly close to ending anyway, so she excused herself to dump her food. She took a deep breath, she needed to get herself back out of her thoughts if she was going to survive the rest of the school day.


	9. Chapter 9

Hana eventually found herself sat at a computer in the library, wanting to try something out. She didn’t have a computer of her own to use, and the idea had come to her after Mai had left for volleyball practice that day. So she’d come here, and picked one in the section tucked away towards the back where she was far less likely to be disturbed. 

Hana pulled up the school’s email service and logged herself in. Clicking on the ‘compose email’ button, Hana paused, trying to remember the exact address she’d been told a few days prior…ian@televoid dot com? No that didn’t sound right... _ net _ . It was dot net.

Hana knew that Ian had said he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to get those emails but dammit, she was going to send one anyway. They were waiting for the next episode so they could record it on their phones but not acting _ at all _ was making Hana restless. Even if sending the email ended up being pointless, it would ease her mind to know that she’d done  _ something _ .

The question was, what the hell did she send?

_ Dear Ian… _

She rolled her eyes and backspaced the ‘dear’. Really Hana? This was your best friend not a school official or distant relative. You might as well put “To whom it may concern” at that point. 

_ Ian,  _

_ Mai and I saw you on the show a few nights ago, and we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw it.  It was very unexpected to say the least. I don’t know why you were hosting it, or how you even got there, but I have to admit seeing you cracking jokes was...nice.  _

_ As bizarre as the show is, I’m glad it gave us a way to see you. Waiting for the next episode is agony, because we can’t tell anybody about it until we have proof it exists you know?  But we’re going to do it. We’re going to tell people about it and hopefully it can be tracked and we can bring you home.  _

_ Stay safe,  _ _   
_ _ Hana. _

Hana double checked it, hovered her mouse over the button for a second, then clicked send. There. It wasn’t much, she didn’t even know if he’d get it, but she’d done something at least… Hopefully knowing that she had done all she could for now would ease her mind.

Another thought prodded at the back of her head now though. Curious, she opened up the internet browser and typed in “televoid.net” to see if anything come up. It could just be an email server, but you never know...

It turned out to actually be a proper website...sort of. It existed at the least. However the website itself didn’t have much on it. Nothing about the show at all. Just two lines of text one saying “Come back soon!” and the other prompting people to send Ian an email. Each line had cheesy gifs on either side of the text. 

“Tt. What year is this?” Hana muttered. She frowned wondering if maybe there was anything hidden on the site. She tried highlighting the empty white space, clicking aimlessly, tilting her head and squinting to see if their was some semi transparent image hidden in the background…

It was stupid and unlikely but you know what, so was finding her missing friend while watching TV.

Just her luck, Hana heard a melodic chuckle behind her. “What’s going on over here?”

Her head darted back to position then in the direction of the voice. Satch. “Uhh-hey. Nothing just…”  She groaned internally.  Why did things like this always happen to her? “I was...uh…” 

Her unsure stutters managed to pique Satch’s interest further, and he leaned into get a good look at the contents of the screen that were befuddling her. She expected nothing more than a curious question about what the website was for. 

“...You saw it too?”

Yet she got that instead. She would have been prepared for literally  _ any  _ other response to the website.  Not Satch responding in something between surprise and awe, telling her that he knew  _ exactly  _ what she was looking at. Hana whirled around in the computer chair, eyes as wide as saucers facing her friend.

“You-You watched…” Hana choked out, then upon remember that they were in a library took her voice down a level or two. “ _ You saw him!?  _ You saw _ - _ ”

“I saw Ian.” Satch said, adjusting his glasses that come come misplaced when he looked down at the screen “I didn’t think anyone else  _ had  _ seen it. At least not at the Academy. It was such a specific thing at a specific time, I only had the TV on static for background noise. ”

Hana nodded vigorously, keeping her voice hushed. “Same with me and Mai! She left it on while she was in the bathroom and I just heard his voice and…Wait, it was in your room? Did Jared see too?”

Satch put a hand on her shoulder, calming her. “No, he was out of the room for a while last night, hanging out with Luke.” That was nice of him, Luke could probably use the company with his currently half empty room...

Satch double checked that they were the only ones in this section of the library, as wary of people finding out what they knew right now as Hana and Mai had been, then continued on. “Naturally, I tried using the DVR the second I snapped out of shock but…” he sighed. “Once it was done, there was no recording. Like it deleted itself.”

That just made the whole thing all the more sinister and...uncomfortable to Hana. She’d get bothered about that further later though. This was...big. It was exciting, even a little comforting that someone else they knew had seen it. “We were going to try recording it on our phones next time? The quality wouldn’t be all that great but..it’d be something. ” 

“Huh, that’s a good plan. I hadn’t thought of that. If it’s something on the TV station preventing recordings, that’d be a way to get past that.” he mused. “Uh. this may not be the best place to discuss this at length. You never know when someone might wander back here. ”

“Yeah, I mean you just did...I lucked out that you knew about it.” Hana agreed. Lucked out was an  _ understatement _ . What were the odds? “Uhh..Maybe we can have like, a meeting about this? I definitely want to tell Mai you saw  _ Televoid  _ too. And actually it crossed my mind earlier but I didn’t think it was a good idea with just me and Mai seeing it...Maybe get Luke to come and tell him about it? He’s been worrying about it so much and I mean he confided in us two when Ian first disappeared and didn’t show back up to the room. I think he deserves to know.”

“...I’m not sure if he’d believe us but, yeah that seems fair to try to keep him in the loop. But I don’t think we should tell too many other people without any evidence.” 

“I’ll text him and Mai, where should we meet up?” Hana asked. Definitely not the dorms. The walls were way too thin for that…

-o-

Luke looked understandably confused and possibly concerned entering the classroom. It was a disused one on the fourth floor of Poppy Hall that Satch has suggested.  It had electrical issues or something, the lights were dim and flickery and occasionally emitted buzzing sounds. Satch had assured them it was safe, but Hana found it ominous. Fitting, really. Ominous meeting room to discuss something ominous.

The desks were shoved up against the back wall, and Satch, Hana, and Mai were seated in chairs that littered the room randomly. Luke eyed them with some surprise. “Uh...so what brings us all to this sketchy classroom?”

“You should sit down.” Satch answered. If the private meeting in the least likely place to be found wasn’t already a red flag for Luke, that certainly was. He pulled up a chair and sat, chewing on his lip with a baffled and suspicious look about him.

Satch spoke again when he judged Luke to be ready. “What we’re going to tell you is going to sound ridiculous, probably crazy if I’m honest, but I promise you it’s true. We don’t have any proof yet but...I thought maybe that myself and Hana and Mai discovered it separately might convince you.”

Luke looked wary. “What’s going on dude?”

“We know something about what happened to Ian. Kind of.”  said Mai. She scratched her head, and looked to be struggling how to explain it quickly because...boy had that thrown Luke for a loop. 

“Why are you guys telling  _ me  _ and not  _ the cops!? _ ” 

Hana cut him off almost immediately. “We can’t. Not without proof. That’s where the crazy part comes in Luke. A few nights ago there was this...show. It came on, just suddenly in the middle of the night on a channel with no signal and well...Ian was on it. Hosting it.”

“...This is messed up prank you guys.” Luke’s face was grim, the shadow his hat cast over his forehead making it even more so. “Like, come on are you seriously joking about this whole situation?”

“What the hell, no! We’re not kidding Luke.” Mai said, looking at the other two occupants of the room with crossed arms. “I  _ told  _ you guys he wasn’t going to believe us.”

“You did, I had my reservations about it as well.” Satch put his hand on his forehead. Hana shrunk in on herself, feeling stupid for suggesting this in the first place. “We aren’t trying to prank you Luke. Either this is Ian, or he has an double that just so happened to show up as soon as he disappeared.”

“Satch, man. Are you really going along with this?” Luke asked, staunchly refusing to believe they weren’t pranking him. Hana wasn’t sure whether to consider his reaction honest disbelief or denial.

“We’re telling the truth Luke. This show, it’s called  _ Televoid _ , exists. There’s a website, and an email address and everything.” Hana assured him. 

Luke raised an eyebrow, his arms still crossed. “Alright, alright say this thing is real. Say you all caught this weird show. How are you  _ sure  _ it isn’t just someone who looks like him? You said it came on at night, you could’ve been seeing things while you were tired.”  

“If this isn’t Ian, then this guy is doing one  _ hell  _ of an impersonation. He even speaks in Com-” Mai cut herself off, wide eyed, like she’d almost let slip something she shouldn’t. “Er, I mean, it  _ sounds  _ just like him.”

Mai earned herself a funny look from Luke, but it was fleeting. He sighed. “Okay, I believe that you guys think you saw Ian. But it was late, you could’ve been just hearing and seeing things because the host of this thing reminded you of him.” 

“All three of us?” Mai demanded. “What are the odds of that happening?”

“Dunno, probably still higher than all of you just happening to end up watching a show with your missing friend on it?” Luke shrugged....He had a point. That was an insane coincidence. But Hana still knew what she saw. What they saw. 

Satch cleared his throat. “The show is supposed to air at the same time next week. We were planning on catching it to get proof anyway. You can join us and judge for yourself ” 

Luke sighed, like he couldn’t believe he was going along with this but agreed nonetheless.


	10. Chapter 10

Just because their little group of four(Okay, 3 ½ maybe, since Luke wasn’t entirely sold yet.) knew there had to be something more to Ian’s disappearance than him being kidnapped from his dorm room, didn’t mean the rest of the academy did. It was growing closer to two weeks since Ian going missing had gotten public. That was more than enough time for the word to get all the way around the school. It was also enough time that even those who’d originally assumed it wasn’t that serious were getting freaked out. 

It was by no means the only thing Hana heard people talking about, but conversations from classmates worriedly wondering how someone had managed to snatch a student right from the school were becoming common place. People were scared. Quite a few were afraid Ian wasn’t going to be the only student taken away.

To be fair, despite that there were clearly strange circumstances surrounding how he’d been taken, Hana herself still questioned the same thing. If someone could take one person like that, why just stop there? For all she knows, there could be a whole slew of other programs like  _ Televoid  _ hosted by people who’d been spirited away. . 

It left her wondering, why Ian. Had he done something to make him a target of...whatever was behind the show?  Was it his love of old, retro shows that had drawn the ones behind the scene to him? Would they find more people, even possibly more Asagao students that fit the same kind of criteria?

Hana wondered if her worry was more or less than that of the other students. Whether knowing what was going on with Ian was better or worse than being ignorant. (Well, she was definitely less worried than the ones who thought he’d been  _ murdered _ ...) Or if it was the same, but her wandering thoughts and worries were just a bit more creative thanks to what she knew.

The day Hana was having these musings in particular, she noticed just how much the atmosphere at the school had taken a turn. It wasn’t all hushed whispers and everyone panicking by any stretch but it wasn’t hard to see that things were getting a bit grim. Seeing a student travelling on their own even just to the library or their classes was becoming increasingly rare. Using the buddy system seemed to have become an unwritten rule among everyone. Either you yourself didn’t want to go anywhere alone, or none of your friends wanted you to out of fear of your safety.

This was how Hana had wound up, more often than not, with someone from either Hidden Block or Normal Boots on walking her...well  _ anywhere _ , if Mai wasn’t with her. Today she’d been intercepted on her way to the library by Jared.

While she understood the intention, and was to an extent appreciative, the constant vigilance of her friends was beginning to make Hana feel like she was being coddled. 

“You don’t have to take me the whole way, really.” Hana insisted even as they drew closer and closer to the building. “Aren’t you guys having a meeting today?”

Jared responded with a dazzling smile(as if he had any other kind) and patted her shoulder. “I doubt the others will mind me being late for such a noble cause as this.” 

The unamused look on Hana’s face spoke for itself, and Jared visibly toned it down. 

“I know it seems a bit much but you know how it’s been lately. I don’t think anyone would know what to do if another one of us disappeared after we let them go somewhere alone.” His eyebrows lifted and a soft frown formed. “It’s always better safe than sorry Hana.”

“I understand that but....” Hana had a thought, and  looked Jared dead in the eyes. “If you’re so worried about people going around campus alone then who’s escorting you to your club meeting after I’m safe at the library?”

“Satch’s shift is finishing up.” Jared spoke in a tone that made her suspect he knew exactly what point she was trying to make and that he’d prepped for it. Guess she was eating her words. 

After this they were silent for the rest of the way to the library. Hana wished she could share with him why she was so  blasé about walking around campus alone but...no. Satch was right, they shouldn’t let more people know about  _ Televoid  _ until there was solid proof. To be fair to him anyway, even though evidence pointed to it, they still didn’t know for sure that Ian wasn’t taken from somewhere other than his bedroom. They didn’t know for sure if whatever was in charge of  _ Televoid  _ wouldn’t take anyone else.

Still, after arriving at the library and bidding goodbye to Jared and Satch as they took off to their meeting, Hana was rather confident her trip there would’ve gone without incident even without Jared accompanying her. There were worse things she supposed though.

-o-

Hana discussed the issue at hand with Mai later on that night. “It’s sweet and all but do they really think something’s going to happen if we’re alone for five minutes?”

Mai shrugged, clicking and typing at a word document on her laptop. “It’s not like it’s just us they’re doing it to, they’re all acting this way with each other too. You gotta keep in mind us, Satch and Luke are the only ones that even kind of know what’s up. It probably makes them feel better to think they’ve done what they can to keep their friends safe, you know?”

Hana had to agree there, and decided to drop it for now. Overly concerned friends should be the least of her worries. 

“Doesn’t mean some people aren’t blowing it up out of proportion though.” Mai added a few moments later, leaning back in her chair.

“Why, what’d you hear?” Hana peered over from her desk to look at her, curious. This school was a breeding ground for drama, she didn’t think that would change with what happened. 

“I don’t think we’re getting it much in our class, which is ironic as hell if you ask me, but it’s starting to be like the boy who cried wolf. There’s people freaking out and reporting it if their friends don’t show up for class or lunch, or come back to the dorms at little later than they usually do. It’s crazy. I get being a little scared, and doing stuff like our friends are but that’s overkill.”  

“Has...anything like this ever happened at Asagao before?” Hana felt like if it had happened she’d have heard about it somewhere but you never know...

“Not that I know of. And like, as much as this place tries to keep any serious problems as hush hush as possible, you can’t cover up a student going missing...” Mai said. A troubled expression passed over her, but she said nothing.

Deciding not to pry into what Mai was thinking about, Hana asked another question that had been bugging her. “So um. What do you think the….deal with  _ Televoid  _ is?”

“What do you mean?”

Hana turned her whole self around, her neck had started to hurt from how she had it craned to look at Mai. “Well...It’s not a normal TV show, right? Even taking Ian hosting it out of it, it comes in the middle of the night, he doesn’t have access to a computer and it cut him out with that staticy stuff when he tried to explain how everything worked. What’s the deal? What’s the point?”

“I haven’t really thought about it.” Mai admitted, leaning on her arm. “It’s...well it feels like something we’re not really gonna be able to figure out until we have Ian back and we can ask him, you know?” 

“I...guess.” It was a sound way to think about it, really, but she’d been hoping for some kind of answer, at least some kind of theory from Mai. 

“Don’t think too much about it for now Hana.” Mai said, shutting her laptop and yawning. She got up and stretched, and headed to her bunk. “It’s just a couple days until the next episode. Once we have proof it exists, I’m sure they’ll be able to get someone to figure it out.”

“Yeah...you’re right.” Hana got up herself and crossed the room to flick the light off. She might as well go to bed too. 

Or try at least. Knowing Ian was out there had eased her restlessness for a while, but that was coming to an end. As she tried to fall asleep, her tired mind just kept pulled back to  _ Televoid  _ no matter how hard she tried to think of something else. She groaned. She just wanted to sleep, she just wanted to not think about that for a few hours.Eventually Hana finally found herself drifting off, but it was no escape as she’d hoped. Her sleep was troubled, her dreams dominated by an empty black void and flashes of static.


	11. Chapter 11

Hana’s dreams carried on like that until the day they were due for another episode of  _ Televoid _ . Her rough, nightmare ridden, sleep meant she was exhausted, but that wasn’t going to deter her from staying up and catching the show. Mai had briefly suggested Hana could just go to bed and let her handle recording it but Hana had shot that down quick. It wasn’t just about getting the evidence, really…It was through a screen but it was still seeing Ian after all.

They sat on Hana’s bed, staring at the tv static, waiting for the show to come on. They’d turned it on at two to be on the safe side, and they’d been waiting for around half an hour now.  As they sat there, they knew on another part of campus Satch and Luke were waiting for the very same reason. Satch was crashing in Luke’s room for the night to make sure he saw  _ Televoid  _ for himself, under the guise of needing to help him repair some sound equipment. 

Hana nervously glanced at the clock. 2:33. She searched her memory to see if there was an exact time she remembered the show coming on. She knew it was around 2:30, but had they already passed when it had come on last time? 

Her doubts were eliminated mere minutes later, her head jolted to the TV when she heard the same tune from last week and her eyes were greeted by the flashy  _ Televoid  _ intro.

Hana’s heart lept seeing Ian, for a moment he looked like he was spacing out watching the TV, like he hadn’t noticed he was being filmed yet…Then his eyes darted to the camera and he sprung into action.

_ “You’re back!”  _ Ian exclaimed, gesturing wildly,  a frantic, desperate smile on his face. It faded as he composed himself.  _ “Sorry...got a little excited there. I’ve just kinda been waiting…” _

Oh god he looked so...sad.

_ “...staring at white noise this whole time.” _

Hana’s mouth trembled. Whoever had taken him was just...keeping him locked in that room with nothing between the episodes? She didn’t know what else she expected but that was so...

“Hana!” Mai elbowed her  and held up her phone. ...Right. The reason they were staying up for this in the first place. Hana fumbled for her own, turned on the camera, and held it so it was angled at the screen, but not obscuring her view. 

After suspiciously noting that they just happened to be tuned in when the TV started to work, Ian began to go through the same motions as last time. There was another old PSA on the TV, and he cheerfully watched it, riffing on it.

“That raccoon thing is fucking  _ creepy _ .” Mai muttered, to Hana’s agreement. Seriously, who ever though people in cheap, dead eyed animal costumes was appealing to kids? She’d had so many nightmares about the mouse at Luck E. Cheese's growing up…

There wasn’t much else different from last time, except without the shock of seeing it for the first time, and being at ease that they were going to have proof after this, Hana and Mai were a lot less tense watching it. There were a few moments where Hana came close to laughing even. It almost reminded her of the some of the nights where she and Ian had watched old movies with his VCR. 

...Would he still want to do those again after this?

When the show itself ended, things took a turn for the bizarre. Someone in a cheap fox costume appeared out of nowhere.

“What. the.  _ fuck? _ ”  Hana muttered

They watched ‘Frank the Fox’ follow in Ricky Raccoon's footsteps, teaching Ian walking safety. If you could call berating him for a mistake he didn’t actually make and calling him by the wrong name while drinking excessively teaching. At least Ian looked just as, if not more confused than Hana and Mai. Especially when the printer showed up out of nowhere.

_ “Alright let’s see what we have here, looks like it’s an  _ **_email…_ ** _ ”  _ he said, holding the paper to his eyes.   _ “‘Ian, Mai and I saw you on the show a few nights ago, and we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw it. I have to admit seeing you cracking jokes was...nice.. As bizarre as the show is, waiting for the next episode is agony.  Stay safe, Hana’.”   _

It was her email.  But…. _ not _ . Most of it was missing, devoid of any reference to getting him out of there or that they actually knew him. Reconstructed without proper context. As he read through it, Ian’s befuddled face told Hana that he noticed that the phrasing was kind of odd, and he  _ must  _ have noticed it was from her, right? 

“Why even give him your email if they’re going to take like half of it out?” Mai asked. Hana shrugged. Maybe...it was the only one and they needed to give him something? 

_ “Well, hey Hana, I’m glad you and your friend are enjoying the show!”  _ he said, a genuine smile on his face. Hana squinted, looking for some sign he knew it was from one of his best friends. Mai’s name alongside hers should’ve been a dead giveaway but there was no recognition.  _  “Thanks so much for writing in, this is so cool!” _

He moved on, it turns out Hana’s email wasn’t the only one, he’d also gotten some  _ fanart _ , of all things. Now they knew for sure they weren’t the only ones watching…

Ian was so delighted with the emails too...almost awed that he even had them. It wasn’t artificial like when he was hosting the segment covering the show, but the happiness still made Hana’s stomach lurch. What else but isolation could make someone so desperately excited about a couple silly emails?

_ “...it’s been so long since you were here, what do you say we just try to find something else on TV, huh? I mean, what’s gonna happen if I don’t say bye now?”  _

As he began to get up, Hana got a sinking feeling that they weren’t going to be watching anything else today. Those words were tempting fate in the most obvious way possible. She realized how much he didn’t want this to be over. Between this and the emails it was like...like it was his only way of getting to the outside world.

The show cut to black.  A “Tune in next week!” message popped up on the screen, and the TV went back to static. Tempting fate indeed.

“Well...I bet by next week they’ll have found him.” Mai sounded confident and she held up her phone like it was trophy. Hana looked to her own. Yes...come morning they’d be able to tell someone about this.

Mai climbed up to her bunk, getting ready to go to sleep. Hana grabbed the remote off the nightstand.

She didn’t turn off the TV right away. Hana’s eyes made contact with the white noise as she held the remote to it and she halted. She let it burn into her vision, let the static buzz in her ears. Ian had said he’d this was all he had between the last broadcast and tonight’s…She blinked, still seeing fuzziness even with her eyes closed. 

The buzz of the static was grating on her, and the patterns and flashing and tearing in the noise, though oddly entrancing, were starting to bug her eyes out. She tried staring at it a little longer, until Mai asked her if she was having trouble finding the remote and snapped her out of it.

“No I’ve got it.” Hana said, she shook herself, and turned the TV off, still vaguely seeing patterns behind her eyelids. She felt a sudden pang of sympathy for Ian and almost felt bad for being able to shut it off An entire week of that? It had started to get under her skin after a few minutes. She shuddered. 

As she crawled into bed, Hana’s phone let out a ding!, alerting her of a text message.

**[Satch; 2:59am]:** Check your recording.

That didn’t bode well. She flipped open her camera roll and tapped the thumbnail for the recording.

...Static. It was all static. No… She skipped through all twenty minutes or so of the recording and that was  _ all that was there.  _

“Mai!” Hana hissed starting to come close to tears. The redhead popped her down from her bunk to her attention .”Check your video...Mine’s all messed up...”

Alarmed, Mai sprung back up to her bed and grabbed her phone. The soft yet impassioned “No!” that came shortly after told Hana her recording was in a similar state. Useless to them now. Hana texted Satch.

**[3:02am]** It’s all screwed up for both of us...you too?

**[Satch; 3:02am]:** Yep. Also Luke is flipping out. 

**[Satch; 3:02am]:** Get some rest, we’ll talk tomorrow.

**[3:03am]** In the old classroom? Around dinner?

**[Satch; 3:03am]:** Sounds like a plan. Goodnight.

Hana shut off her phone, told Mai about the meeting and huddled under her covers, feeling the tears coming on again. It wasn’t fair, they’d been so close….


	12. Interlude: Homesick

It wasn’t  _ fair.  _ Ian plopped into his chair after letting it sink in that the show was over, head in his hands. Not fair at all. So, so much time of waiting. So much time he couldn’t be bothered keeping anymore and just for  _ one  _ stupid show. 

He didn’t even get to actually say bye...

_ Why. _ Why couldn’t they just let him have one more show, just a bit more time on air? Would that have hurt anyone?

Ian lifted his head and stared at his hands. He couldn’t believe his own thoughts right now. Even if it was reprieve from his isolation, should he really be that eager to host this show? It was playing right into their hands wasn’t it? Whoever... _ they _ were. They...whoever who’d taken him and  _ forced _ him to do this. Who, going by the feeling that  _ someone _ was watching him even after the show was over, were monitoring him as he sat there.

Thinking about how his hosting duties went, and how something definitely got into his head while he was watching the show, an idea couldn’t help but cross Ian’s mind.

Were they listening to his thoughts too?

Well if they’d been listening this whole time, they clearly didn’t give a shit about what he thought, huh? They hadn’t done anything to make his time in this stupid box any more comfortable or easier. Hosting  _ Televoid  _ was an escape, but that was him doing exactly what they wanted him to. Being a good little host for them.  That’s all they cared about. If he went crazy in here, as long as he still did a good job on the show they didn’t care. They’d still keep him. 

God how long was he going to have to stay here? Until he died? He didn’t need to drink or eat or sleep or anything in here though...Would he die? Could he still die? Would he be here  _ forever? _

He’d been here so long, it  _ felt  _ like forever, but he knew in the grand scheme of things, it hadn’t been too long since he’d been taken away from…

From…

From his dorm room at...

Ian’s chest tightened. What...What was his school’s name? Why couldn’t he remember? Like he was just thinking, it hadn’t been  _ that _ long really since he’d been there right? Certainly not long enough to forget the name?

Ian took a deep breath. Come on...Alright start small. What did it begin with? 

_ What did it begin with? _

_ A _ ...It began with an A…

He thought on it a bit longer, before it finally jumped to the forefront of his mind.

“ _ Asagao! _ ” he burst out. “I went-I  _ go to _ Asagao Academy, oh my  _ god _ .”

Relief that he recalled it flooded over him. It didn’t ease the tightness in his chest though, he knew for certain that this place had to be screwing with his head if he had that much trouble remembering the school he’d gone to for two and half years.

That relief morphed into longing quick. He wished he could be back at Asagao now, where his worst fear was failing one of Miss Shizuka’s exams, not being trapped forever.  Back rooming with Luke, back eating lunch with the rest of Hidden Block. Ian hadn’t felt anywhere close to such a profound feeling of homesickness since he was a first year. And even then, that was still nothing like this. At least back then his family was a phone call or a text away. Now he had nothing, no contact with the outside world except the awareness of his audience when he hosted and the emails.

Something nagged at the back of his mind when he thought of the emails. Unsure why, Ian bent down and picked them up, staring at the top one, the one with fanart, for a bit. The nagging sensation wasn’t satisfied by that one, so he flipped to the other. The generic, yet oddly phrased, one saying how much they liked the show.

Wait. 

_ Stay safe, Hana. _

….

_ Mai and I saw you... _

“Hana and Mai... _ Hana and Mai saw me _ .” Ian whispered. How had he just brushed that off and not realized it when he was reading it off on air? Had they been watching then? Had they seen him read off their names, not affected by them whatsoever? 

Would they think it wasn’t really him because of that, because of whatever the Void was doing to his head? 

Obviously that’s what had kept him from realizing he’d just read an email from one of his best friends. If it could make him take him several minutes to remember the name of the school, even when he was trying his hardest to recall it, it could easily make him not recognize the names of people he knew in the fleeting time it took to read the email. 

Against all odds though...Ian had hope now. 

Sure...it was possible they gave up when he didn’t recognize their names but...surely it was also possible they could tell how blatantly not normal  _ Televoid  _ was and realize something was messing with him. It wasn’t naive to think he had a chance of being found and getting out.

….right?


	13. Chapter 13

Mai and Hana arrived in the classroom they’d met in before some time after Luke and Satch. Satch was composed, waiting on one of the four chairs they’d pulled aside last time they were in here. The room was untouched since then. 

Luke sitting in one of the chairs as well, lacking Satch’s composure. He had his head in one of his hands and didn’t look up in acknowledgement, even when the door slammed shut when Mai let go of it too quickly. Hana didn’t blame him for being more freaked out, after all they’d had some time to get a grip on what was happening. He hadn’t even had a day yet.

Hana sat down, and Mai followed shortly. Satch nudged Luke and he came to attention then, with a loud, long sigh. “Guess this is where you guys say I told you so, huh?” 

“Luke it’s fine that you didn’t believe us until you saw it. I wouldn’t have believed us” Hana assured him with a gentle smile. “This is about figuring out what we’re going to do now, not rubbing in that we were right.”

Satch made a noise of affirment. “Yeah, the recordings getting messed up like they did is a huge problem. The DVR recording deleting itself I could brush off, but all four of our phones’ recordings glitching up…that’s troubling.” he absently played with his glasses. “I don’t think we’re dealing with a show that’s normal in the slightest.”

“You’re not thinking it’s...something supernatural are you?” Hana was wary. As much as she enjoyed stories, Hana had never been one to believe that sort of thing actually existed and happened. There was more than enough everyday weirdness in her life to keep her from wondering about magic and UFOs and whatnot. And Satch was a rational, logical person, he must feel similarly.

“I’m not sure what to think. I don’t want to jump to any rash conclusions like that though. It could just be some advanced technology to keep the show from being filmed, or something.”

“You never know though…” Mai was on the more speculative side. “I mean, something like that doesn’t still explain how they got Ian. Something supernatural could.”

Mai had a point there. Still Hana, and from the skeptical gaze on his face Satch too, wasn’t sold on that.  This could still be a bizarre happening without there being other  _ forces  _ responsible for them. 

“What do you think Luke?” Mai  got the attention of their rather quiet friend, who hadn’t been offering much input.

He shrugged noncommittally. “Heck, I’d believe anything at this point. And our room wasn’t a mess or anything. Pretty sure Ian would put up a huge fight if someone just tried to grab him.” 

“Supernatural forces or not, we need a new plan of some kind.” Satch said. Hana agreed, even if they were split on the cause of all this, there was no reason for them to start debating and arguing on that.

“Well we already know emailing him’s a bust.” Hana said, thinking back to her failed attempt at communicating with Ian glumly. “Whoever’s keeping him is definitely monitoring what he gets and taking out the parts they don’t like.”

Luke had a more upbeat take on that though, and offered it with a little smile. “They didn’t take your name out though, maybe Ian didn’t let on but he’s  _ gotta  _ know you’re watching at least.”

Hana knew he had a good point there, but it didn’t help much “Him knowing we’re watching doesn’t get him  _ out  _ though...” 

Satch patted her lightly on the shoulder.“No, but it might give him some hope. With the way he got cut off at the end, he probably could use it.”

“Anyway, I think that’s enough on this for now.” he added after some thought. “We’re not sure of anything for right now, and it might not be a good idea to get caught skulking around in an old disused classroom while almost everyone’s at dinner.”

Both Hana and Luke’s stomachs growled at the mention of dinner, earning well needed chuckles throughout the room. This stuff was heavy, they all needed something to lighten them up….And to get some food.

-o-

Dinner, to put things lightly, did not end up going well when Hana and Luke turned up late to the Hidden Block table. Their absence had been noted...as had the secrecy that permeated the group of four that knew about  _ Televoid _ .

They arrived and sat at the table with their dinners, Hana noted that the four other members of the club were all close to finished with their meals. Their little meeting had run even later than she’d expected it too.

“What took you guys so long?” Jimmy asked, an innocent question. That Hana had to quickly drum up a lie about.

“Getting in some studying.” she decided upon. That was reasonable enough right? None of them were in Hana and Luke’s class, they could say she were cramming for a test or something and they’d be none the wiser.

Jimmy squinted “With Satch? Isn’t he in a different class?” 

Was it just her or did Jimmy seem a little...suspicious of them? His tone made her hesitate on what to say next, though thankfully Luke chimed in for her.

“Well yeah, but you know how smart he is. Dude knows like everything.” He grinned. Luke had either suddenly bounced back from his  _ Televoid  _ induced shock, or put up a good front. He seemed back to his normal, cheery self. “He was helping us and Mai out.”

“Was that what he was doing a couple days ago too?” Jeff asked. Okay  _ he  _ definitely sounded suspicious. What was up with him and Jimmy; they couldn’t be on to them hiding something could they? At least it looked to be just be the two of them, Caddy and Wallid were surprised by Jeff’s...well it wasn’t quite  _ hostility  _ but his tone was harsher than they were used to.

Luke narrowed his eyes, it was Jeff and Jimmy’s turn to have suspicion thrown at them. “I’m not liking vibes I’m getting from you guys right now. Did we do something?”

“You guys have been meeting up and then showing up to meals late a lot lately.” Jimmy replied. Hana shifted nervously, but to her relief someone other than Luke came to her rescue. 

“Hey, studying is important.” Wallid said casually, giving them the benefit of the doubt. “I’ve never had Shizuka, but she’s pretty harsh with her tests right?”

“Exactly, especially when she’s had bad luck with dates!” Hana could kiss Wallid right now. At least someone was buying it.

“So she’s just happened to have bad luck on all her dates since right before Ian disappeared?” Jeff still wasn’t letting it go. What was going on with him, he was usually so easy-going! He’d been one of the more optimistic and well...normal acting ones since aforementioned disappearance. Now though…

“Dude what the heck are you trying to say?” Luke shot back, his instant jump to irritation making Hana silently come to the conclusion that he was indeed mostly acting collected a few moments ago. 

“Do you know something?” Jimmy demanded. Hana gaped, as did Caddy and Wallid. Luke however, looked heated.

“Seriously?” 

Guilt began to grow in Hana. He only seemed suspicious because she’d roped him into this  _ Televoid  _ business. She wanted to say something, but what? Tell them the truth? That’d take so much convincing and now wasn’t the right for that time at all. Besides, Satch didn’t want to drag anyone else into this…

Hana’s rapid heart beating and the anxiety clawing its way through her chest made it difficult for her to fully pay attention to the disagreement Luke was having with Jeff and Jimmy. She got the gist of it though. The two of them thought they might know something about Ian that they weren’t telling anyone. Which  _ technically  _ was true, but the accusation had more sinister implications than just being sort of aware of what happened to him.  

“...his roommate, of course I was the first one to notice!”

Hana heard her name a few times (once suspiciously referencing that she was the last person to actually see Ian) as it started to become a full blown argument. She felt sick. Both at her friends fighting and the fact that her being up to something was one of the subjects on the table.

“ _ Guys… _ ” Wallid tried to intervene, as Jeff and Luke both stood up, eyes locked. Oh god… Hana saw attention snap to their table at the sound of their chairs screeching across the cafeteria floor. 

“ _ OI! _ ” Caddy shouted. That sure as hell did the opposite of deterring people from looking their way, but it did manage to halt Jeff and Luke, if for a moment. “Stop it! What’s fighting each other going to do? Bring Ian back?”

Jeff opened his mouth but before he anything could get out, Luke pushed in his chair and just left. Not that Hana really blamed him, but now the stares were directed at her. 

Hana stood and started to follow suit. She heard Caddy speak again, saying her name and something else but she didn’t listen. She needed to go, before she had an anxiety attack.  Though she didn’t go after Luke, she was headed somewhere else. 


	14. Chapter 14

Satch let out low groan and put his hand through his hair when Hana finished explaining the mess she’d just gone through at dinner. She’d gone straight up to his room after, grateful that Jared and the majority of Bluebelle’s occupants weren’t around at the moment. That was easier by far than grabbing him and delaying the news to find a secluded spot. Especially since the secluded spot would probably have ended up being the disused classroom that was definitely becoming their meeting place. It made sense but weren’t there any  _ less  _ creepy places to meet?

Her wandering mind snapped back to Satch as he finally said something. “I was really hoping something like this wouldn’t happen. I suppose it isn’t exactly absurd to grow suspicious of us, even if it’s unlike them. It’s not like they’re technically wrong either.” 

“Yeah but, I don’t know, it felt like they were accusing us of being involved.” Hana said, slumping into the desk chair next to Satch’s that she presumed belonged to Jared. Satch put a hand on her shoulder. “I feel like...I just...don’t know what to think that my friends jumped to a conclusion like that about me.”

“People say unreasonable things they don’t really mean when they’re upset and stressed. Jimmy and Jeff are probably putting their feet in their mouths as we speak.” Satch reassured her, then drew his hand away. 

Satch was probably right, yet the sick feeling of having blame like that thrust her way still pulsed in her stomach. It felt awful to her that it had crossed their minds that she could be a part of what happened to Ian. Was it because she was the newest to their group, did they still not entirely trust her? Then again they’d been quick to throw suspicion at Luke and Satch too so…  _ Ugh  _ this was so frustrating.

“Are you sure…” Hana began, before quickly pausing. Was she really going to suggest this, even though she knew Satch was against it, even though she herself knew it wasn’t the best course of action? It couldn’t hurt though, right? “Are you sure we can’t tell them too?”

“Hana you know that’s a bad idea.” That was exactly what Hana expected he’d say, yet hoped he wouldn’t. “It took Luke seeing it to believe it, and we don’t exactly have any evidence to show them. I don’t think we’d be able to convince them all to pile into a room and watch next week’s to prove it either.”

“They’re just gonna get more and more suspicious of us though. What if they convince Wallid and Caddy we’re up to something, what if-” Hana couldn’t continue her worried thoughts aloud. What if in addition to losing one of her friends literally, she lost the rest of Hidden Block because she wouldn’t fess up to what was going on and they ditched her? 

“That’s just your anxiety talking Hana.” Satch’s voice was calm, she knew he was talking rationally here, but she was getting frustrated nonetheless. Hana didn’t want to potentially drive her friends away because continuing to lie was the logical choice. She’d managed to drive her friends away before how did she know this was going to be any different…

“Really, just give it a day or two, I can’t see either of them-”

The door creaked open, Satch froze mid sentence, and Hana jumped. It was Jared, and he made his way into the room casually. It took him a second to notice she was in the room in addition to Satch and mild surprise crossed his face as he spotted her. Which was a slight relief, that must mean he hadn’t overheard any of their conversation, thank god. His reaction to the two of them being alone together pretty much confirmed that. 

“Oh hey guys. Am I er... _ interrupting _ something?” Jared’s grin was sly, and she could see him jumping to conclusions before her eyes. On a different day under different circumstances she might’ve blushed at the implication, but right now she just scoffed.

“Nothing at all. In fact I was just leaving.” Hana said, standing up and heading for the door. Honestly, good timing on his part. Satch didn’t do anything wrong per se, but talking to him had not achieved what she’d hoped for. She needed to go back to her room and chill out. Satch opened his mouth but didn’t say anything.

She caught Jared giving a vaguely alarmed look to his roommate before she stepped out and closed the door.

-o-

Hana spent pretty much the rest of the night in bed, sulking on her phone.  After what had happened today and then having to relive it when she told Mai (who had seen the argument at the Hidden Block table from afar and naturally wanted to know everything) she felt pretty damn drained. She wasn’t even searching for an app to open at this point, just flicking back and forth, back and forth, between two screens. Hana didn’t really have the right mood or energy for much else.

When the knock at the door came, she felt nothing but exasperation at whoever it was. She was done for today. Hana knew she was going to have to handle the fallout of the various messes at some point, probably even tomorrow, but tonight, really? Mai stood to get it for her, optimistically noting that it could be one of them coming to apologize. Hana wasn’t sure if she was up for even that conversation yet though. 

Hana peered towards the door, but rather than Jeff, Jimmy or Satch, it was Jared. Oh thank god, he was probably here for Mai then, they’d grown to be pretty close friends. Closer than Hana was with Jared anyway.

“Hana? Can we talk?” 

God damn it.

She sat up though, even though it was begrudgingly. Well, as much as she didn’t want to, it  was better to face some of the aftermath of today’s shitstorm sooner than later she supposed. “Yeah?”

“Is there something...going on with you guys?” He asked, face soft and concerned. “Satch seemed frustrated after you left and wouldn’t tell me.”

“It’s...hard to explain. I can’t really explain all of it.” Hana admitted. “I was kind of venting to him about something related to the  _ situation  _ that happened at dinner tonight and he disagreed with me. We’re not mad at each other really, just not seeing eye to eye about handling it.”

“Oh. Uh, what was that thing at dinner by the way? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Jeff and Luke going at it.”  The look on her face seemed to make Jared realize that she was not up for explaining, and he took it gracefully. 

He put his face in his hand, and addressed both her and Mai, who’d been quietly observing the conversation. “Look...you don’t have to tell me what exactly you’re all getting frustrated and mad at each other about, but with what’s happened...This isn’t a time to be divided.”

“I know” Hana played with part of her hair. “It's just… Satch is one thing, since we didn’t really fight. But I don’t even know how to approach Jeff and Jimmy about the thing at lunch. Things got really heated.”

Jared “hmm’d” and tried to give it some thought, but Mai had some thoughts of her own running through her head, then proposed an idea first. 

“I know it’s not the super mature way to go about it but...you could get someone to go between and ask them for you?” she suggested. “Like just tell them you want to meet up and sort this whole thing out?” 

“Yeah, that’s pretty good.” Jared approved of the idea. “Asking PBG might be a good idea too since he’s so close with Jeff...and I’m sure he’d  _ love  _ to help you out.” 

Hana rolled her eyes. Sometimes she swore Jared was trying to set her up with the entire rest of Normal Boots.  Even at a time like this. “I don’t know, I think I’d rather pluck up the courage and approach them myself.”

Mai mulled it over in her head. “Eh yeah you got a point. Worth a thought at least. “

Hana agreed, she could use that as a backup in case she chickened out on approaching herself.“Not tonight, I’ll try to get myself to do it soon though.”

“Hey, whenever you’re up for it.” Jared smiled and started towards the door. “All right. You ladies have a good night. Hopefully we get this shit sorted out, we don’t need this on top of worrying about Ian.”

The door closed, and until they could hear the footsteps getting further and further away it was silent.

“Boy he has no idea.” Mai commented. “I still feel kinda bad, I know he’s been so worried about us lately but...we are bound by secrecy on this thing aren’t we?” 

“Yeah.” Much as in the moment she’d been aggravated about it, Satch was right. They couldn’t just go around telling everyone else about  _ Televoid _ , she wished they could at least tell a few others ,but it just wasn’t the smart way to go about it. There were other ways of dealing with this particular mess. “It’s not like knowing is doing  _ us  _ any favors anyway, we don’t know how to get to him, we have no idea how to even get  _ proof  _ he’s there…”

Mai nodded and voiced Hana’s exact thoughts. “We’re as stuck as he is.”


	15. Chapter 15

Hana knew the smartest way to go about it was to bite the bullet; get the harder task over with, and talk to Jeff and Jimmy so she could settle things. The problem with that was she was terrified of getting a negative response. Satch was the easier conflict to settle...because there wouldn’t be much conflict. She’d already conceded to herself that he was right, and they hadn’t exactly been angry with each other anyway.

That’s why after right class the next day, she’d gone seek out Satch. She could wait until his shift at the library was over so they’d have more time to talk but Hana was putting off one thing, she’d feel a little better about that if she got the other done and over with as soon as she could. 

Hana waited at the end of the hall near the stairwell on the floor above her, she didn’t know which classroom Satch was in exactly. She kept an eye out, searching over the sea of students for a Normal Boots jacket. Easier said than done, given her height. Or lack thereof...

Eventually one came into her line of sight, and it did in fact belong to Satch. Hana left her spot beside the stairs to meet up with him. 

“Hey…” She greeted as she approached him, with a small smile as a peace offering. Once he saw her and stopped, she took a deep breath. As soon as possible, don’t beat around the bush. “About yesterday-”

Before Hana could continue her apology, she got a smile in return and Satch waved his hand dismissively. “Water under the bridge. A little spat like that was bound to happen with the thing we’re dealing with on our shoulders.” 

She had a feeling things would go well with Satch, but not that well, and Hana was filled with relief. “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that.” 

“We’ve got better things to be concerned about.” He looked around, and though the hall was almost emptied out, directed her towards the other end to the far more vacant stairwell. Looking for privacy. Had he come to some epiphany about what they were going to do about Ian since they last spoke?  “I’ve been thinking on it, we need to approach this whole  _ Televoid  _ thing differently, now that it’s pretty definite we’re not going to be able to get proof.”

“Differently?” 

“At this point, getting Ian back could very well be in our hands. We should try to focus more on  _ how  _ he got there,  _ why  _ he’s there. It’s simple, we find out how he got there, where he is, and it’ll hopefully lead us to a solution.” It made sense to Hana, she nodded along, but…

“If the police can’t figure it out, then what chance do we have?” she couldn’t help but ask. Those were professionals, smart as Satch was, they were a bunch of high school students. She had a feeling Satch was anticipating that question though. 

“It could be time to consider Mai’s suggestion.”  Satch said. “I wasn’t really for it at first but man, I can’t really come up with anything but something supernatural being responsible for this. And I doubt the police are looking into anything like that. If that’s not it at least we tried it, you know? Better than nothing.”

“I guess it’s something to go off of.” Hana was skeptic as all hell, but what could she say or theorize that Satch hadn’t probably at least considered already? “I mean...Ian showing up on Televoid after suddenly disappearing is crazy enough to consider that I suppose. It’s almost like something out of one of those stories from Mr. McPasta Wallid tells me about.”

Lightbulbs went off in both their heads. They stopped in their tracks, turning to each other with eyes wide at the simultaneous realization they’d come to. 

“Wait...you don’t think…” 

“If anyone...would believe us….” Hana replied, thinking back on all the bizarre stuff she’d heard rumors of and even witnessed herself. (The goddamn closet.) Nurse McPasta was pretty much an expert in weird phenomena...not to mention possibly one himself. 

“...Meet me outside of his office after my shift at the library. Bring Mai and Luke. We’re officially onto something.”

-o-

Hana got the impression that Creeps was not expecting a group of students, none of which appeared to be injured, sick, or in distress, to turn up to the Nurse’s Office. There had to be some students aside from Wallid that turned up just to talk or hear stories sure, but none of them were among those. 

“May I help you four?” he asked, wearing a mildly perplexed expression on his face. 

“There’s something we found about last week and weren’t sure who to approach about it until now.” Satch said, chewing on his lip. “It’s...Well it’s pretty unexplainable to us and we figured you might be the right person to tell. The only thing is, we don’t exactly have proof of what happened.”

Mr. McPasta looked noticeably interested now. “I’ve certainly never been one to disregard something because I can’t see it in front of me, where’s the fun in that? Go on. ” 

Collecting themselves, the group of them(primarily Satch, Hana and Mai) told him the story of Ian on the strange TV show, how the recording on Satch’s DVR deleted itself, about the email Hana sent being changed, and how the recordings on their phones all getting corrupted was starting to convince all of them that the whole thing wasn’t natural. Luke jumped in, insisting that he hadn’t bought into their story before he saw  _ Televoid  _ for himself but afterwards was convinced it had to be Ian. All throughout this, Mr. McPasta didn’t say a word, he just listened intently.  Once they finished, he didn’t say anything and Hana was worried even he didn’t believe them.

Mr. McPasta scratched his chin. “What a strange little coincidence we’re all wrapped up in…” he mused. The group of four looked between themselves.

“Sir?” Hana asked, hoping he’d elaborate. 

“Ah, sorry. What I mean to say is I believe you. Largely because I witnessed the show for myself, and I can’t help think what an interesting happenstance it is for so many people that know Mr. Macleod to come across the program he’s wound up on.” he explained t o them. Maybe because of all the stranger rumors about him, Hana didn’t find herself all too surprised that he saw  _ Televoid  _ as well. A little bit, but certainly not as much as she’d been to find out Satch had seen the show too.

“I was thinking the same when I found out Hana and Mai saw it.” Satch replied, nodding slowly. “If we’re going down the route of  _ Televoid  _ being something supernatural though, maybe it isn’t too much of coincidence. It could be Ian reaching out somehow.”

“Hm. That’s something to consider at least. It doesn’t look like he has a lot of control over his situation but.. “ he shrugged, loose and nonchalantly as he trailed off. “I think an important thing to do right now is break down our collective knowledge of what’s happening. You four already shared your thoughts while telling your story so I ought to share mine. One thing that’s got me more on the side of this being supernatural is yes, the fact that your friend managed to disappear from his dorm without any evidence, but also something I think you may have overlooked.” 

Hana went through her memory of the two episodes of  _ Televoid  _ they’d watched. She couldn’t think of anything strange or worrying that they hadn’t touched upon. What had they missed?

“What? We pretty much described everything in both episodes, what’d we miss?” Mai crossed her arms, looking skeptical.

“You did, but what piqued  _ my  _ interest in the first place was before and after the episode.” he explained. “I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess all of you were watching this on more modern televisions correct?”

“Yeah, I just got my TV a few weeks ago. Why?” Mai asked, unsure what this had to do with things. Hana was as well. 

“Well, when was the last time you saw noise on a newer TV? You don’t really get that anymore, usually it’s just a black or blue screen saying ‘no signal’ if nothing’s coming in. Coming across a channel filled with snow is what grabbed my attention and got me to watch in the first place.” 

“I hadn’t thought about that.” Satch said, with a widening of his eyes. “That is odd, and does go along with what happened to the footage on our phones...”

“Static where there ought not to be static. Not strictly supernatural, but peculiar enough in combination with what else is going on to warrant thinking about.” he said, resting his hand on his chin. 

“Do you have any...theories, sir?” Luke asked.

Unfortunately, Mr. McPasta shook his head. “Nothing solid at the moment. It’s rather hard to explain even for me. I think now that I have some help and other perspectives- ” he held out his hand, gesturing to the four students in front of him. “-I might be able to come up with something sooner than I originally hoped to. For now though, it’s getting a bit late isn’t it?”

Hana glanced at the clock in the corner of his office and was surprised at just how much time had passed since they’d gotten there. Time flies when you’re talking about conspiracy theory level happenings with the weird school nurse she supposed.

Taking the hint, they thanked him for his time and before going, Hana and Luke made an “appointment” with him. Mr. McPasta was very interested in what the two of them had to say about the day Ian disappeared. 


	16. Chapter 16

“You think Creeps will be able to figure this out?” 

Luke and Hana had been quiet most of the way to the Nurse’s office, but as they encroached on the building it was in, Luke voiced his concern. 

Hana had her worries too, how much more could they know that he didn’t? But… “It’s a start at least, and we already know some stuff that we didn’t before/And I feel better knowing we have someone with more experience in weird stuff helping out.” 

“Yeah…Guess we just gotta hope something about the last day we saw Ian’s significant in all this.” Luke held open the front door for Hana and she hurried in under his arm.  Hana’d been thinking on that since last night. The only out of the ordinary thing that happened that day was Ian storming out of the cafeteria after the club had teased him. She wasn’t sure that had any hand in him disappearing...

They arrived in the office, but Mr. McPasta was nowhere to be found. In all fairness though, he was the only nurse the school had, he couldn’t exactly say no to going off to get a sick or injured student just because he planned to meet with them. It was a little unsettling though, just the two of them in the empty nurse’s office.

Hana found herself scanning the room as they waited. Her attention wound up drawn to the desk. There was some sort of word document open on the computer and jars with... _ things _ in them. As she peered over to get a closer look at what exactly those things were, Luke tapped her shoulder and pointed at the door. Mr. McPasta entered with a cheery grin.

“Sorry about that, had a bit of a false alarm over in the art center.” He put his things down on the desk and turned back around to face them. “Right. Now I’m not going to ask you both to recount the day Ian went missing down to every detail. That’d be a bit much considering it was over two weeks ago. What I ask is anything out of the ordinary pertaining to Ian happening. Anything from a slight break in his routine you noticed, to something noticeably peculiar. Oh and do feel free to take a seat.”

He seated himself in the rolling chair by his ask as he said this, and Hana and Luke followed suit. She pulled back the curtain from around the nearest bed and they sat down. She wondered how long they’d be here.

Going back to that day, the first strange thing to jump to Hana’s mind was him getting fed up with the club’s teasing of him. She had a good idea of why it’d happened and wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with him disappearing but Mr. McPasta had asked for anything. “Some of our friends were kind of messing with Ian at lunch, that’s not really odd for us, but he got frustrated and left the table. Usually it doesn’t faze him.” 

He nodded, and Hana noticed he’d produced a piece of paper and pen, and was jotting what she said down. “Hm. So would you say that’s a reason Mr. Macleod not being around much for the rest of the day didn’t immediately strike you as alarming?”

“I guess yeah, that and Ian does just like to spend a lot of time on his own.” Hana said. Part of her vaguely wondered if things would’ve gone differently had that not been the case, or if they had taken more issue with it...  “Him not meeting us for dinner was kind of weird, because he said he would, but we thought he just might’ve just gotten upset again.” 

Mr. McPasta’s hand moved the pen across the paper again. Luke spoke as Hana was searching her memory for other odd happenings from that day. What else was there they hadn’t told Mr. McPasta initially? 

“He was really freaking spacey in class that day. Mostly after the stuff at lunch, but he was kind of out of it during the morning too.” Luke leaned on his arm and then crinkled his nose as he made a quiet groan  “But I guess he could’ve just not slept well...”

“We have to consider everything Mr. Sizemore. Even something insignificant like that could amount to something.” Mr. McPasta replied, taking notes of this down as well. The pair were quiet as they both tried to remember the details of that day, prompting Mr. McPasta to ask, “Anything else? Perhaps what Mr. Macleod left to do when you saw him last?”

“That old TV you guys found at the old electronics store.” Luke said, glancing at Hana. “Ian told you he was going to mess with it right? It was out when I got back to the dorm. I thought he’d left to grab something for it from Satch or something, but he hadn’t seen him.” 

“An old TV?” This piqued Mr. McPasta’s interest. 

“Yes, it was a portable one from like the fifties. At least that’s what Ian thought going from the style of it, he couldn’t figure out what brand or model it was.” Hana replied.  

“Interesting.” Mr. McPasta mused, drawing out the last syllable of the word. “Would you say tinkering with that TV is likely what he was doing last before he disappeared?”

“I mean yeah, like I said it was out, and his phone was right next to it.” 

“Well, would it be possible for you to bring that TV over here?” Mr. McPasta asked, a smile like he was onto something gracing his features.  Hana scrunched her face. What could the TV have to do with anything?

“Yeah but...why?” Luke appeared as confused as Hana. “What could a TV have to do with this whole business?”

“Your friend finds an old television in a second hand shop, disappears, and ends up on some strange program? There’s many stories out there along those lines.” Mr. McPasta informed him. “In any case, if it turns out to have nothing to do with it, no harm in checking right?”

Hana supposed not, and Luke didn’t argue either. That was just a running theme in their search for Ian: Something was better than nothing. 

“Any more oddities about that day coming to the both of you, or shall we leave it at that and take that old TV as our lead?”  he asked, lifting up his pen and gesturing it at the two of them. Hana couldn’t come up with anything else, nor did Luke, and Mr. McPasta took their silence as a ‘No’ and clicked his pen.

“I’ll go grab that TV I guess.” Luke said, standing up first. Hana nodded and followed him out of the nurse’s office. They got down the hall and through the building’s exit before Luke let out a long sigh. “Well that was a thing.”

“Yep.”

“You know I guess we should just trust him on this considering how much experience he has with spooky stuff but...You really think the  _ TV  _ could the reason all this happened?” He asked, tapping his chin. “I guess I’ll believe anything’s possible, especially after what we’ve seen so far but…”

Of course Hana knew that the TV was the best lead they were going to get. Ian had found the TV, and then just a few days later he’d disappeared. That could be a coincidence but the nature of everything going on made her doubtful on that front. She was about to voice that to Luke when a thought wandered into her head. A correction. Technically, she’d found the TV, not Ian. If it hadn’t been for her he’d have missed it, wouldn’t he?

Suddenly, the idea of that TV being the cause of all this was a very unappealing idea to Hana. 

Instead of giving a concrete answer, Hana shrugged. And tried very hard to shove the thought that had planted itself back into the recesses of her mind.


	17. Interlude: On the Brink

There it was again.

There it was, the sensation of being watched, even though Ian knew the show wasn’t on. It had gone away for a little while, but there it was again. He had an audience. He waited for a few moments, maybe  _ Televoid  _ was just about to start. 

Nothing. 

Ian didn’t even think hosting the show would make him feel better anymore. The fact that he sometimes still felt someone watching when it didn’t air had taken away the relief from his isolation that sensation once brought him. He  _ wanted  _ to go back to being isolated at this point. He didn’t like this. He’d always been a private person. It wasn’t all the time by any means, if anything he felt alone more often than not. It just...disturbed him so profoundly now.

An audience watching him host Televoid was one thing. With that, Ian could at least tell himself “It’s funny, I’m making jokes about old stuff, of course some people would want to watch that.” This was different. This was just...people watching him sit here. Watching him alone, isolated, feeling like he was going to lose it. Were there really people out there who found that kind of thing entertaining?

Cynical as he was, Ian genuinely wanted to believe people were better than that…

Maybe they weren’t actually watching. Maybe the isolation had pushed him into feeling watched when he wasn’t. Maybe he  _ was  _ just losing it. 

He wouldn’t rule it out. 

Ian wondered what would happen if he well and truly lost it. Went completely insane from this. Truly, he’s surprised he’s lasted as long as he has being relatively okay. Sure there was the constantly persisting headache from all the buzzing in the room, bouts of horrid anxiety, and those times he swore he saw flashes of light where there weren’t but… He was mostly fine. 

What would happen? Would they make him keep hosting even past the brink of insanity? He didn’t really do much thinking for himself while  _ that  _ happened. It was always stuff he could see himself saying but he could only control  _ what _ he said before and after the show. Reasonably, they could just cut straight to it and nobody would be the wiser…

Would they do that?

Ian looked around him, thought about the whole mess he’d been through so far.

If he had to give his honest opinion? Yes. Yes they would. Whoever  _ they _ were, they didn’t care about him. Just the show. The audience didn’t seem to care much either, given he’d  _ told _ them he was stuck in the first episode and they didn’t care. None of the emails seemed particularly worried, other than the fact that Hana’s had said ‘stay safe’ on it. 

Now, Hana and Mai? He didn’t doubt for a  _ second  _ they were concerned. His being here obviously meant he’d been  _ missing _ for who knows how long now after all.

Everyone else watching was a crapshoot. For all they knew, he could just be acting, couldn’t he? A review show with a framing device of the host being trapped there? Before well, being stuck in that exact situation….he’d have liked that idea a lot.

Ian went back to pondering his feeling people watching when he wasn’t reviewing anything. (They were still there…) Approached it from the angle of “People might actually think this is just a scripted TV show.” He still had to wonder what kind of person would find someone sitting in a chair doing nothing entertaining. 

If anything, that pointed him right back around to the thought that maybe he was just losing it. 

He laughed.

Well, he’d see eventually, wouldn’t he? 


	18. Chapter 18

Thanks to Hana getting wrapped up in involving Mr. McPasta with the whole  _ Televoid  _ thing, she’d kind of sort of forgotten about seeing about getting the Hidden Block drama settled. Which meant things had been staying pretty freaking awkward. She’d been finding excuses(mostly to justify it  _ herself  _ to be honest...) to be somewhere else during mealtimes since the blow out.

Today she’d excused herself to the library as she needed to catch up on some homework that she’d been putting off. Which, to her credit, was true. It just didn’t  _ necessarily  _ needed to be done at the same time as lunch, seeing as it was a Sunday and all.

Someone in Hidden Block had managed to find her there though. It was, going by the clock Hana glanced at, not too long after everyone was dispersing from lunch and she’d decided it was time to get going and head back to the dorm. Before she’d stood up, she looked to her side and startled as her face met Caddy’s. When had he even...

He gave her a small, awkward wave and a grin. “Greetings and salutations Hana. Erm, are you busy with something right now?” he inquired, his eyes falling on the various study materials spread across the table Hana hadn’t yet collected. 

A small surge of warmth went through her as she remembered him staunchly defending her and Luke when suspicion had been directed at them. She couldn’t find it in her to deny his request. Not when he’d been willing to contest friends he’d known longer than her. “No, I was just about finishing up. What’s up?”

“I know it’s a bit short notice but we’re calling a club meeting to er, settle things.” he said, scratching the back of his neck.  Hana stiffened slightly, thinking back to what things she was sure would be settled, then Caddy immediately continued. “Mostly I think Jeff and Jimmy want to apologize.” 

Apprehension still lingered but she suppressed it. Avoiding your problems doesn’t lead to them getting solved, Hana. “Where to? The club room?”

Caddy’s face lost tension she hadn’t noticed he’d been holding in up until then. “Yep!” He watched Hana start grabbing her things and putting them into her backpack and grabbed the book she’d been working out of and handed it to her. “I’m really glad we’re getting this dealt with. I don’t like seeing everyone at odds with each other…”

Hana held the book to her chest and clutches the edges of it tightly, bending the soft covers ever so slightly. “Yeah, I mean I guess all friend groups fight sometimes. Though with us, it’s usually just you and Ian.” 

The last part slipped off her tongue before she even realized what she was saying. Had Hana not been holding the book she’d have slapped herself in the mouth.  _ Seriously? _ There was a time and a place to bring up their rivalry, and given Caddy didn’t even have the luxury of knowing Ian was at least alive, she didn’t think that was anywhere or anywhen right now.  She cringed, only half looking at her friend. 

He...laughed though? Almost fondly in fact. “Well, me and Moosey like to keep it interesting… God you know I feel like he’d snark at us for being so ridiculous with each other for his sake.” 

Putting the book in her bag, Hana smiled a little. “He would, wouldn’t he? Probably call us all idiots.” 

In silent agreement of Hana’s last note, they left the library and went off in the direction of the club room. Along the way after the silence was broken they mostly reminisced stupid shenanigans between Caddy and Ian. There were a lot of those, some Hana had witnessed, some she hadn’t. It was funny, it was moments like these you could tell Caddy was a whole lot fonder of Ian than the pair of them usually let on. At the end of the day, they were friends that loved each other. They just chose to express it through arguments and antagonism. Some friendships are weird, she supposed.

Moments like these Hana also wanted more than anything to figure out a way to get him back from whoever had snatched him away to host  _ Televoid  _ as soon as she could. She acted annoyed at their antics but all this was making her desperately wish that this club meeting could just be a normal one, one where Ian and Caddy’s bickering kept them from doing anything. 

Absence made the heart grow fonder of some bizarre things sometimes. 

They’d reached the door to the club room, but all was quiet. Hesitant looks were exchanged between her and Caddy, before he pulled the door open for her and bowed dramatically. “After you, my beautiful person.” 

Hana curtsied in thanks, giggling and entered the club room. Caddy followed her in, and there were their four other clubmates. God, Hana couldn’t get past how odd it was to see her club so quiet. The air was tense so it was understandable why but...it felt  _ wrong  _ on some level. Hidden Block shouldn’t be quiet, it should be loud and lively. It should be chaos. It should...it should have seven people, not just six…

Especially since one of those six people had only recently joined up.  Especially since one of those six people might be the reason the seventh wasn’t there.

_ “Hana, I’m so glad you spotted this.” _

Hana dropped into a seat, and willed the tears that were now at the corners of her eyes to go back in and for her breaths to even back out and stop coming so rapidly. Not the time, not the time.

“So uh…” Jeff’s voice cut through Hana’s anxious thoughts and her attention snapped to him. He closed his eyes and cut right to the chase. “I was kind of a huge jerk.”

Jimmy sighed. “Same.” He looked down for a beat, and then looked from Hana and Luke. “Look, we’re on edge we’re all worried but us accusing you guys was not okay.” 

Hana almost felt bad herself at the kicked puppy look on Jimmy’s face. More so given that despite that she intensely doubted they were thinking what was actually going on, the two had been right-they knew something about what happened to Ian all right.

Jeff nodded along and lifted a hand to his face and let it droop down slowly. “Ian’s been one of my closest buds for so long, not knowing where he is, what’s going on with him, and having to still do all the student council president stuff hasn’t been easy on me. I’ve been stressed, I’ve been venting a lot of it out to Jimmy and getting him stressed about it…I guess we were getting so sick of it, we jumped to conclusions because it’d be some kind of answer. It was really freaking dumb and we’re seriously sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Hana answered immediately. What else could she say? They were making it so easy on them, not accepting the apology and making things difficult in return for that would be petty. She was still frustrated about accusations being thrown her way but there was nothing to be gained from letting that get in the way. It’d just make everything more miserable than it already was. 

...Plus now she could stop skipping meals to avoid them.

Relief flooded Jeff and Jimmy’s faces, but that was only half of it. Everyone watched Luke, waiting for what he’d say. He stood up, his mouth tilted into a smile and he spread his arms open. “Of course I forgive you. C’mere you big dummies.”

Bear hugs were exchanged between the three of them and it was such a relief to have this mess done away with,such a relief and Hana was already so heavy with emotion that something in her snapped. She let out a sob, of happiness, of joy that at least one conflict in her life right now was gone, but still a sob nonetheless, and she started crying. It caught the attention of her club mates, though she was pretty sure they could tell what kind of tears these were.

Through her tear filled eyes fogged glasses Hana saw a blur she was pretty sure was Luke’s nudge Jeff’s blur with his elbow. “Go give her a hug too ya big jerk.”

Warm arms soon wrapped around Hana from behind the chair and Hana leaned into Jeff’s hug, a smile on her face. Another sorry was mumbled in her ear and she shook her head, it wasn’t needed. She could hear big, thankful sighs that belonged to Wallid and Caddy echo through the room. It couldn’t have been easy for them to be stuck in the middle of things. 

This was so close to how things should be again. There was just one thing left. There was just one person to make things right. One person missing to make the family that was Hidden Block Club whole again.

_ Televoid  _ was on tomorrow. And now, more than ever before, Hana was determined to get it’s host back home to that family.


	19. Chapter 19

Hana was sure no day would pass more slowly for her lately than a day where they were due for a new episode of  _ Televoid _ . Since there was a chance Mr. McPasta could be onto something, it was escalated today. She was antsy during class all day, feeling like it was taking hours for a minute to pass by. Shizuka’s lecture, however important it could turn out to be for her grade, was mere background noise to Hana’s thoughts and impatience. 

It was the afternoon, there was about half an hour before class got out. She’d gotten through most of the day but time wasn’t passing by fast enough for her. Hana wanted to get out of class. She wanted to see if Mr. McPasta had made a breakthrough with the TV. In all honesty, it was worse than last week because now for all she knew it could be the last broadcast. If Mr. McPasta had figured it out, they could have Ian back tonight.

Maybe that was a little too optimistic but Hana didn’t care.

She was tired and tempted to sleep until the end of class, but decided against it. If she got caught she might be forced to stay after class. Rather than trying to catch the end of what Miss Shizuka was talking about though, Hana turned to a page in back of her notebook to jot down something else that was on her mind. (She’d just ask Mai for the actual notes, she looked like she was paying attention.) With a lot of time spent not paying attention in class like she should, Hana had been doing a lot of thinking.

What she was writing down were things she wanted to ask the others about, or thinking about while watching  _ Televoid  _ tonight.

_ Who was keeping Ian? Why? _

No matter how he’d gotten there(...Yes Hana was  _ maybe  _ still a little in denial about the TV) she still had to wonder why they were broadcasting him. And who they were… Did they take him because they needed a host for their show?  And well, that just brought her to her next question. 

_ What was the  _ **_point_ ** _ of Televoid? _

Seriously, they couldn’t want to make money off of ratings or anything. They aired it in the dead of night at a random time, there couldn’t be that many people tuning into it. There was nothing promoting it. The only thing Hana could find on the internet about it was what she assumed was the “official site.” Which hadn’t been updated  _ at all  _ since she last checked it.

Hana sighed and let her pencil clatter onto her desk. This drew Mai’s attention and she offered her a tight lipped smile. Hana smiled back and she turned back around. She picked her pencil back up and wrote down her biggest question. She pressed hard so it was darker, to emphasize it’s importance. 

_ How did she, Mai, Creeps, and Satch all happen to catch it?  _

She remembered Satch’s hypothesis that he could be reaching out to them but...how? What could he do from where he was that would result in all of them just happening to have their TVs on on the right station at the exact right time? It didn’t look like he had any control over his situation at all. 

Besides, did Ian even know Hana and Mai had a TV? They’d  _ just  _ gotten it when he disappeared.

…Well there was another weird coincidence to worry about. Hana was used to being surrounded by those, but she hadn’t been bombarded by them like this since her first week at Asagao when she kept bumping into all the Normal Boots guys.

Eventually Hana stopped writing down questions and speculation and waited out the rest of the class period. It came slowly without her doing something to occupy the time, but the bell did finally ring.  She didn’t even wait up for Mai, her friend knew that she was going to head straight to the Nurse’s office for an update on the TV after class. 

When she got there though, Mr. McPasta was tending to a girl with some kind of sports injury, and Hana had assured him it wasn’t an emergency so she was left to waiting again. It was fine, she shouldn’t distract him from doing his job after all. 

Having not slept well the night before, a combination of anticipation and anxiety, Hana found herself drowsy. She glanced over the half door between the office and waiting room, Mr. McPasta looked like he’d be busy for a while longer, and she didn’t exactly want to fall asleep and miss  _ Televoid _ , so she allowed herself to slump back in the chair and drift off.

Her dreams were the quick changing, muddled yet oddly vivid sort that tended to accompany naps. Half derived from the going ons around her, words spoken that penetrated through her sleeping brain and also from the thoughts buzzing around through her mind. A commonality they shared was being decisively unpleasant.  

Hana opened her eyes to the waiting room being darker than it was before she’d closed them. She blinked a few times, thinking perhaps her eyes just needed adjusting but no, it looked like night had fallen, and apparently Mr. McPasta hadn’t finished up with the girl from before. Hana could hear them still talking, though it was muffled and far away like they’d moved to the back of the nurse’s office.

She tried picking herself up but her body was still heavy and her brain too fuzzy and tired to comprehend how to move it. Alright...she’d just wait until Mr. McPasta got her, it couldn’t be much longer now right?

Their talking got quieter, quieter, until it got to be quiet enough that Hana was hearing a ringing in her ears. She tried to tune it out, listen to whatever other sounds might be present because it was grating on her, but the buzzing only got louder, louder, until she couldn’t hear anything else. Her limbs were still failing her so she couldn’t move to make noise of her own. She tried humming, but the static shifted to follow the rhythm of it and drowned it out completely.

Hana wondered if this insesent ringing in her ears was what it was like being trapped with nothing but the sound of a broken TV for...

“Not fun, is it?” a familiar voice resounded, louder than the static.

_ Ian. _

Hana managed to sit up. Not  _ get up  _ like she’d really wanted to, everything still felt too heavy for that. That was weird, but unimportant. Ian...He was there. In front of her. How...Had Mr. McPasta figured it out while she’d dozed off and sent him over to get her?

Hana wanted to speak, express joy at seeming him safe and out of the Void but the buzzing in her ears was still too distracting, making everything even fuzzier, and she couldn’t form words. She felt only her jaw dropping down the slightest. 

“It’s hard to do anything with that stuff in your ears huh? Ian asked, he was dead quiet, barely above a whisper. Yet still above the static.

Something felt wrong here. There was something  _ off  _ in Ian’s voice and...how did he know that’s all she could hear? 

“Imagine hearing  _ nothing  _ but that for days on end. At least you’ve got me here to make some noise.” 

Hana felt the now familiar feeling of guilt pressing at her chest. “Sorry.” she said, she thought she might be speaking a bit too loud, but she was trying to speak over the noise in her ears. Ian was crystal clear through it, yet she was still drowned out. “You’re back now though. I’m so glad...”

“Uhuh. I’m back.” Ian replied, walking casually towards her. He didn’t look happy at all to see her though. His eyes closed and his forehead puckered as his brows went down. He crossed his arms.  “Wouldn’t have been gone if it weren’t for you though.”

Hana felt sick, the buzzing got worse. “I didn’t…” Didn’t do it? Didn’t know the TV would send him there? “I didn’t…”

He was smiling now, but it didn’t reassure her. His eyes were still closed and everything about him gave off a sinister aura. “Shh. It’s all okay now Hana. You’re going to make up for that.” His voice was sickeningly, mockingly sweet. 

Hana saw the walls surrounding them grow darker and darker, less and less distinct. As they did, Ian’s laughter began filling her ears along with the buzzing. The sound was unlike even his more mocking laughs reserved for Caddy. It was a cold, horrific, evil sound she’d never thought her friend was capable of producing. 

Hana looked down and realized the chair she was sitting in was orange now, not the Asagao blue of the chairs in the waiting room. Then she couldn’t see the walls anymore. It was all black, all she could see before her was Ian looming over her with his twisted smile

Still laughing, he opened eyes that were no longer their blueish grey-they were inhuman, filled with the dark, jittering noise of an old television. “You’re gonna take my place Hana.” 

She shut her eyes, and covered her ears with her hands.  _ Stop it...Stop it _ she wanted to yell.

Then...laughter changed. It was different from Ian’s. It was light, amused, pleasant to her ears rather than terrifying. 

“Decided to pencil in a nap have we Miss Mizuno?”

Hana woke up, actually woke up this time, to Mr. McPasta with a hand on her shoulder.  A dream. That had all just been one of those stupid false awakening dreams...She felt fine now, and now that her head was clearing and absent of static, she wondered how she’d thought any of that was real. 

Hana rubbed her eyes. “Thought I’d catch up so I could stay up and watch…” she mumbled, then pulled herself upright. Seeing that nobody else was there, she saw fit to just ask her question where she stood...er, sat. “Um. I was going to ask if you’d figured out anything with the TV…?” 

“Ah.” He said. From his short answer and tone, Hana worried that he hadn’t, but he smiled again. “No complete breakthroughs yet I’m afraid, but the television set  _ is  _ giving off some interesting signals. I was going to test what happened if I left it on while  _ Televoid  _ was airing. I’m hoping that can help me confirm whether it’s connected to the show or not.”

Hana stood up in front of the chair. She realized her neck was beginning to ache from the way she’d fallen asleep in the chair.  “A-Alright. Well thank you.” 

“Here’s to hoping tonight pays off, yes?” he said.

She nodded, and left the waiting room. The details of her dream were fleeting as she walked away, but some parts, like Ian’s face would be burned there for a while.

-o-

“Shit!” 

Hours and hours later, back in her dorm room, Hana heard Mai swear loudly. She was about to hush her for being so loud so late into the night, until she saw her fumbling for the remote. Then Hana looked at the time.  _ Oh _ , it was past the time  _ Televoid  _ usually started! She shoved away her homework and brought her attention to their TV as Mai turned it on and hurriedly switched the channel. 

It was okay, they can’t have missed much more than the introduction… 

It changed and...the screen was black. No noise or anything. Just a normal unused channel with white text in the corner reading “No Signal”. Completely ordinary.

“...I’ve got the channel right, right?” Mai flipped it a channel ahead and back. It was definitely the right number, but where was the show?

“Is...Is there not one this week?” Hana asked, heart thudding in her chest.  _ No...No… _

“No way, it had the usual ‘tune in next week’ thing.” Mai said “Something’s wrong, text Satch?”

Hana complied. 

**[2:40am]** It’s not on. What’s going on?

Hana expected an immediate response, given what was happening she thought Satch would probably be in a hurry to contact them as well but as the minutes passed, she didn’t receive anything back. He hadn’t even read it. 

Mai looked at her, and she shook her head to indicate she hadn’t gotten anything.They shared anxious looks that communicated the same thought: This was bad. They went back to staring at the TV, their eyes boring into it like through sheer willpower their gazes would make the show come on. Nothing.

Eventually came the time the show usually ended. Soon after that, Hana got a text back from Satch.

**[Satch; 3:00am]:** Did it come on at all for you? I was able to watch it just fine.

**[3:00am]:** Nothing at all. 

[Satch; 3:01am]: Are you sure it was the right channel?

Hana typed rather annoyed and pointedly.

**[3:01am]:** Yes!! Of course I’m sure!! 

**[3:02am]:** We turned on the TV late and there was nothing. :/

**[Satch; 3:02am]:** Maybe you can’t start watching after it’s started? There’s enough freaky business going on with it that wouldn’t surprise me.

That…made sense actually. As she typed her next message, tears welled up in Hana’s eyes and Satch sent another.

**[Satch; 3:03am]:** Usual classroom tomorrow after class. We’ll catch you two up.

**[3:03am]** I can’t believe we missed it. 


	20. Chapter 20

At some point or another, someone had let Mr. McPasta in on where they were meeting and when so he could join them today. It actually made Hana feel a little better about holing up in here to discuss what happened. Four students meeting up with a faculty member was less likely to get them into any trouble than by themselves she figured. It could simply be a meeting for a new club with a supervisor.

Mr. McPasta was approving of their choice of venue as well. 

It became abundantly clear to Hana and Mai that they’d missed quite an episode. Though hearing it described...Hana wasn’t entirely sure if that was a good or bad thing. On the one hand, that meant an entire extra week without seeing for herself how Ian was doing. On the other it did not sound like he’d had a good time.

Him getting fan mail to keep him occupied between episodes was about the only positive thing the others had to say about it. 

“Then this letter told him to put up the antenna and... _ Ugh _ .” Luke shuddered as he explained it. “Something came on but it was...it was…”

“Unsettling?” Mr. McPasta suggested.

“Bit more than that, but yeah I guess that’s a good word for it. There was another Ian on the TV, two of them actually. And then there were these baby dolls that moved on their own and the music…” He trailing off. “It was freaky stuff, I can’t describe it that well. Not sure I  _ want to _ either.”

“How can there be  _ other _ Ians?” Mai asked. 

“Illusions, cloning, robot duplicates, honestly who knows with this show.” Satch said, throwing his hands up. “The point being is, whoever it is in charge of Ian’s being there showed him something to freak him out and the episode ended like normal this time. I think that might’ve been the goal after what happened last time.”

Mr. McPasta nodded. “I agree with Satchell on this. He wanted to watch something else last time, they cut him off. He tried and succeeded this time, but it was something that scared him. I’d be shocked if he tried it again.”

“So...keeping him on task and doing what they want. That’s the aim.” Hana said.She got that, but the situation still confused her. “I...still don’t see why whoever it is didn’t just  _ hire  _ someone to host this instead of kidnapping someone and keeping them in a box.” 

“Some people just like  _ controlling _ things Hana. That could be it. The show might not even be the point, just a way to do it.” Mai put her hand on her chin. The way she said it gave Hana the impression Mai had seen this kind of thing first hand. There were nods and shrugs of agreement shared around.

“Onto other matters.” Mr. McPasta said, leaning on a desk with one hand. “I would’ve lead with this had we all been up to date but that was something that needed to be done. Now that we are, after some observations last night I’m almost  _ certain  _ the television set is connected to  _ Televoid _ .” 

“What happened?” Hana asked, heartbeat picking up.

“I left the set on. Everything was exactly how it was when I got it, I didn’t try flipping through the channels or anything. Nonetheless, when the time came,  _ Televoid  _ came in on it. Though, interestingly, before switching to the usual view, it was all in black and white and from a different angle. It looked like security footage. I fiddled with the antenna a bit while I watched and there were some...interesting graphical glitches.”

“...Dude we noticed that.” Luke said, eyes wide. “So messing with the TV messed with the actual signal or something?”

Mr. McPasta nodded in acknowledgement but looked to have more than that on his mind. “Perhaps...Though I thought it interesting the glitches seemed centered around Ian. Nothing else messed up.” 

“That’s true. Almost as if him and the TV were connected?” Satch suggested, putting a finger on the edge of his glasses. 

“ _ Precisely _ . I don’t think it’d be farfetched to speculate that this TV is responsible for transporting Ian to where he is. That it’s either some kind of portal to somewhere else, or that there’s some kind of...pocket dimension contained within.” Mr. McPasta said.

“That show that came on, they called it ‘The  _ Void _ ’s favorite game show’” Satch said. “So pocket dimension, something outside our own, I have to agree it doesn’t sound like a place that exists on earth. Not to mention, I can’t be the only one who noticed that email asked Ian how he gets food or water before changing when he picked it up?”

They started discussing that, and Hana blinked. Obviously  _ she  _ hadn’t noticed that, but that  _ had  _ crossed her mind. And well...this place not being normal was an explanation for that, wasn’t it? Not to mention….

“Um, I know I didn’t see this one but I also noticed before that...Ian’s hair seems to be growing out a lot? Like, he had almost a full beard and everything, and he’s complained about being bad at growing facial hair before.” She said, deflating almost as soon as she finished mentioning it. Was that  _ really _ significant Hana? “...Actually nevermind that probably doesn’t mean anything.”

“No no, that could be something Hana, that’s a good thing to bring up.” Satch said with a reassuring smile. .“If you ask me that’s just more evidence that this place doesn’t work normally. Something’s up there.”

Mr McPasta waited for a lull in their conversation and cleared his throat. “Now, all that being said...I do believe that if the TV is how Ian got there, it would make sense that it’s also the key to getting him out of there.  _ How _ I’m not exactly sure. I could play around with it more next broadcast, but considering there’s an entire week between each episode I’d prefer not to just be taking chances and have something a bit more  _ concrete  _ by next time.” 

“You and Ian found that thing at a thrift store or something, right Hana?” Mai turned her and asked. It wasn’t accusatory but Hana’s heart started thudding even faster.

“Y-Yeah. It was a second hand electronics store. It caught our eyes because it was the oldest looking thing in there.” Hana said. Catching both their eyes wasn’t  _ entirely _ truthful as she’d spotted it but Ian had ultimately been the one who decided to buy it.

“Well, maybe someone there has some idea about it? Like...who dropped it off there or something?” Mai asked She leaned back and stretched her arms out in the chair. It tilted back and Hana thought she was going to topple over at any time. “I don’t think you’ll get something as straightforward as  _ ‘Oh yeah some weird being from another dimension brought in this and their old time machine.’ _ but you might get  _ something _ .”

“I could try that.” Hana agreed. “Maybe some contact information for whoever dropped it off. I can say I’m just interested in anything else like the TV we got…”

“As long as you’re careful, that’s a sound idea to me.” Mr. McPasta said, grinning at their finding a lead of some kind. “Any additional information we can get will be beneficial, even if neither the clerk nor the person who dropped it off were aware the TV had paranormal properties.” 

“I’d vote they weren’t, I don’t think someone would just ditch something that could prove the existence of other dimensions and shit.” Mai said, and Hana had to agree with her. 

“They could’ve thought it was haunted. If my TV started doing freaky crap I would’ve gotten rid of that sucker real quick.” Luke countered. Hana couldn’t help but think that Luke would probably be one to live through a horror movie. Their lives at present probably wouldn’t be out of place in one.

“Well, whatever the case...I guess I’ll go check that place out tomorrow, after class?” Hana asked, squeezing her hands.  It was too late to go now but she wanted to go as soon as possible. Maybe she’d feel better about finding it in the first place if she got them more information on it.

“Uh, not by yourself you won’t.” Mai said, and elbowed her. Hana wondered if that was  _ entirely  _ protectiveness and not at least slightly to put the one adult in the room at ease. “I got volleyball practice but maybe Luke or Satch?”

Luke adjusted the back of his hat, face turning red, and Satch shook his head. 

“Uh...Detention for messing around in Shizuka’s class today...”

“And I’ve got shifts at the library for the next few days.”

Hana sighed, making her frustration clear. She just wanted to get this  _ done _ so Mr. McPasta could work on a solution faster! This was so frustrating.

“Hey, day after tomorrow I’m free and we can check that place out, alright Hana?” Mai asked, putting an arm around her. “I wouldn’t want anyone going around that city by themselves, it’s a decent place but it does have its shady areas.”

“...I mean we  _ did _ have to cut through an alleyway to get to the store.” Hana said, the store hadn’t been in the safest looking neighborhood it was true. “Day after tomorrow it is.”

After that was agreed on as their main lead to go off of, their meeting was dismissed and the group scattered, all of them leaving a little bit after the others. They all wanted to throw off suspicion of them meeting together. When Hana and Mai left, Mr. McPasta was the only one remaining in the classroom. 


	21. Chapter 21

Hana being impatient and antsy as she was lately, somewhere between last night and this afternoon she’d decided she didn’t want to wait an extra day for Mai to be able accompany her. So, she’d said “Screw it.” and headed off to the city by herself.

Look, Hana had never pretended she always made sound and rational decisions. If anything, her friends tended to push her towards the opposite. True, she had confidence that none of them would exactly be happy or encouraging about  _ this  _ one….but whatever. She had a good idea of where she was going even if Ian had done most of the navigating to the store last time.

She stepped out of the train station and observed the city before her. It was around four o’clock, and it was summer, she’d have plenty of daylight left until the sun set. Enough time to find Ed Violet’s for sure. 

Hana tapped a finger against her chin. She’d unfortunately not been able to find an address for the place, but she knew roughly what the area around it looked like. Her and Ian had cut through an alley close to a big furniture store...what was that called again?

...Eh she’d know it when she saw it. She had a decent memory for that sort of thing. Hana kept telling herself that she ‘vaguely’ and ‘mostly’ knew the way there a lot for someone who had convinced herself she’d be perfectly fine getting to the store on her own. It was too late to second guess herself now though. Another pair of eyes helping her identify landmarks that she knew were on the way would’ve been nice but she could handle it. Hana could always ask around too. She’d be sticking to store clerks rather than people on the street for that though. She had sense enough for that.

Hana had been walking in a direction she was pretty sure was the way to the store for a little bit now, before coming to a stop. Hm. This area definitely was familiar, but she couldn’t recall which of the streets she and Ian had turned down.

She closed her eyes, concentrating, trying to bring back the memories of that day. It was so far away now. 

_ “Ian are you sure this is the right way?” Hana asked, hesitating and stopping in her tracks. They’d crossed an intersection and when given two ways to go, Ian had started guiding her towards the more...rough looking street. _

_ “I told you, I passed this place last time I was in the city. This is the quickest way.” He flashed her a little encouraging smile and put a protective arm on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, it’s broad daylight and like  _ **_hell_ ** _ I’m gonna let anyone mess with you.” _

Hana went towards the very same street that Ian had guided her down. It may not be quite as light out, and she may be alone this time, but her determination exceeded any fear she had. As she walked further and further, the way they’d taken came back to the forefront of her mind. She was confident in where she was going, and it wasn’t too far from here now. 

It wasn’t the autopilot her legs went on when she walked around campus, not by a long shot, but Hana didn’t have to be as vigilant of every step she took now. As she wandered, drifting ever closer to her destination, as did her mind. She wondered what Ian would think of her heading here on her own.

...He’d call her an idiot. He’d be grateful of her doing this for his sake, but he’d still definitely call her an idiot. But hey, she hadn’t been mugged yet. That was a good sign, right?

Speaking of signs...Aha! That was the furniture store sign she’d remembered right across the street! Taking a quick glance on either side of her, she scurried across the way.  She put her hands on her hips confidently. See Hana, you figured this out without any help! Now she just had to cut across that alley to the next street, and Ed Violet's would be right down the road.

Assured as she was, Hana still held her breath going down the alley. It was...a lot darker through here. Lots of hiding places for someone who wanted to lull someone into a false sense of security before jumping at them. She clutched the fabric in her pocket. Maybe she should’ve worn something else, she stuck out like a sore thumb in her bright yellow jacket...

_ Bang! _

Almost to the end of the alley, Hana shrieked upon hearing something metal loudly clatter to the ground. She turned, otherwise frozen in fear…

A cat near a wobbling trash can lid hissed at the shrieking she’d made.

“Uuugh, really Hana?” she said. Of course it’d been a cat. Shaking her head, she passed through the gate and turned onto the street where the electronic store would be waiting for her. 

Hana’s eyes scanned up and down, looking for the purple neon sign of Ed Violet's. It wouldn’t be lit up yet at this hour, but she remembered it sticking out on a street that looked like it just consisted of slate grey warehouses.

It didn’t this time. Hana’s heart thudded. She...couldn’t see the sign anywhere. Had she gone down the wrong street? No, that alley had definitely been the one the two of them had cut through last time...Maybe it was a bit further down? She spent the next few minutes roaming up and down the street, taking in every bit of the scenery around her, searching for the store. It had to be around here somewhere. It had to be. 

Hana had to have been on the lookout for the store for nearly twenty minutes when she heard someone try to get her attention. 

“Hey there, you’re looking pretty lost.”

Hana gulped, and shyly looked up at the person who’d gotten her attention. It was a woman, older than her, with vibrant purple colored hair and dark makeup. Her attire showed off a variety of tattoos, and overall her appearance intimidated Hana, but she tried to look past that. The woman looked more concerned than anything. 

Hana nodded slowly and spoke quietly, politely.. “I am actually...I can’t find something.”

“I know this area pretty well, what’re you looking for?” the woman asked.

“...An electronics store.” Hana gestured in the general direction she’d remembered it being. “I swear it was around here somewhere. It’s a second hand one, it’s called Ed Violet's Electronics? Um. Me and my friend went there few weeks ago but now I can’t find it.”

The woman squinted and scratched her head. “...Can’t say I’ve ever heard of that place. Are you  _ sure  _ it was this street?”

“Yes!” Hana insisted. “It was definitely here. It had a purple neon sign, and they sold old TVs and other stuff like that.”

“Hm. Weird, I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed a place like that.” the woman said, looking the street up and down. Hana had wondered if she was messing with her at first, but her confusion looked genuine. “Uhh, unless maybe they opened and closed up shop before I had the chance to notice, I’m afraid you’re looking in the wrong place.” 

Hana sighed. “I guess so. I...suppose maybe I should come back with my friend. I might’ve gotten turned around somewhere” It was a lie, she knew she was in the right spot and only pretended to be resigned to being wrong. Something was up with that store she’ll bet. Just like there was something up with the TV. Someway or another it had vanished after they’d gotten the TV. “Thank you for your help, anyway.”

The woman waved. “No problem. Good luck finding that store. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it myself. Sounds cool!”

With how kind she had been to help her out, Hana hoped the woman never found the store for herself.

Hana made her way back to the train station much faster than she’d walked to the street Ed Violet's was supposed to be on. She felt...defeated. This trip had been a waste of her time, and she was surely going to hear it from her friends for going there on her own. She slumped next to the window and closed her eyes as the train departed, taking her back to Asagao Academy.


	22. Chapter 22

“I can’t believe you.”

“Mai-” 

“Seriously, you couldn’t wait a  _ day?  _ I know you’re fine but you  _ could’ve  _ gotten hurt Hana!” Mai said, putting her hands on her hips . Really, Hana knew she deserved the lecture but couldn’t it wait? She was trying to explain what happened!

“I  _ know  _ it was stupid! Do you want to hear about what I found yesterday not!” Hana shouted.

Mai put her hands up. “Alright, alright. You’re only off the hook for  _ now  _ though missy.” She jabbed at Hana’s chest lightly and the tone of her voice held  _ some  _ authority, but was a little more on the playful side. So she was partly forgiven a least. “What’s up? Did the guy at the store know anything?”

“The store’s gone Mai. I  _ know _ was in the right spot and it wasn’t there. Someone who said she knew the area had never heard of it.”  said Hana  as she put her face in her hands.. “I don’t know what I even expected…” 

“I mean, I guess it makes sense in a weird way...” Mai played with her hair, looking at it thoughtfully. “Freaky, probably magic TV that can send people to other dimensions. Freaky probably magic shop that vanishes after it manages to sell the TV. Maybe the clerk set up, waiting for someone to come in and get it so they’d have a host for  _ Televoid _ . Or something.”

A frown flicked at the corner of Hana’s mouth. “What about the woman though? She acted like it was never there. Ian said he saw it on his last trip to the city before we went, that’s how he knew about it.”

Mai put a finger on the tip of her lip. “Maybe only you and Ian can remember it since you bought the TV? Or...hm. Only you two could see it in the first place, like it  _ chose  _ you or something?”

“I honestly don’t know which of those is creepier.”

“...Yeah me either. It’s a thought though.” 

“Speaking of things that give me the  _ creeps _ ...We should probably tell Mr. McPasta about this.” Hana replied, a sly little smirk forming. Mai opened her mouth to respond, paused, and then glared at her.

“A bad pun at a time like this Hana?” Mai asked. Hana snickered at the look on her face. Mai only held the glare for a few seconds before grinning(a bit begrudgingly) herself and ruffling Hana’s hair. “C’mon sillybean, let’s go take your findings to the nurse.”

“Can we leave out the part about me going by myself? I don’t think he’d take that well.” Hana said. She didn’t think he’d get her in trouble, given that he pretty much already condoned them leaving campus on a day they weren’t supposed to but...Better safe than sorry. 

Hana also had heard enough from Mai and the logical side of her own head about how her solo adventure was a terrible idea.

“Yeah, yeah I won’t snitch, no worries.” Mai pushed open their door and gestured for Hana to go out before her. “To the nurse’s office!” 

She paused. “D’you think people are starting to wonder if our little group have like, the plague or something with how much we’re hanging around there?”

Hana shrugged loosely. “Maybe. Can’t really do anything about that now though.”

-o-

Mr. McPasta sighed, looking about as defeated as Hana felt. “Well...I suppose ultimately I’m not surprised. That’s how these kinds of stories tend to go unfortunately.” 

“What do we do now, that was pretty much our only way we could find out more about the TV wasn’t it?” Mai asked, spinning herself from side to side in a rolling

“Only non-trial and error way at least.” Mr. McPasta said, looking up the TV; it was currently tucked away on a shelf in the office. “I don’t want to mess around with it too much, for fear of breaking it or the potential connection it has to Mr. Macleod, but the set itself is our only clear lead once more.” 

Hana cast her eyes on the TV herself, and her heart thudded looking at it. A connection to Ian huh? Could that be tied to Mai’s idea that something  _ chose _ her and Ian to find the shop and the TV? She wasn’t sure that was it but it was sure something to dwell on… Ian just so happens finds an out of the way electronics store. Hana‘s attention happened to be drawn to a TV that was hidden behind all kinds of other junk. Maybe she was onto something.

“Do you think...the connection is  _ just  _ because he was sent there by the TV?” Hana asked, fiddling with her tie. Her heart beat faster, stronger, as she gestured to her friend. “Mai was saying something earlier, like...what if something pulled us towards the shop?”

Mai nodded vigorously. “So, maybe somehow the TV got connected to him before all that. I mean you’ve messed with that thing and you’re definitely not in the Televoid.”

“I believe the place is the void and only the show is called  _ Televoid,  _ Miss Sasaki..” He corrected. Mai rolled her eyes. “Regardless of terminology that’s an  _ excellent  _ point you two have...” For a moment Hana thought she could see his eyes widen underneath his bangs and the shadow they cast on his face. “Though, that’s rather harrowing if the only way in, and I’d imagine out, is being connected to TV in some fashion. As far as we know, only Ian is.” 

Hana swallowed. Here went nothing.“I think I might be too.” she said. 

Needless to say, her company was not expecting that. Mai’s mouth dropped into a small ‘o’ shape, Mr McPasta’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes were fixed on her. Given the silence hanging in the air, Hana appeared to have rendered the pair of them speechless. Maybe she should’ve elaborated first.

“Ian found the shop but...I’m the one who found the TV. He passed right by it but something about it drew my eye to it. Realistically I don’t think I should’ve spotted it. It wasn’t exactly out in the open and I don’t know enough about old tech to be on the lookout. I just...happened to see it and got curious. So if a connection to the TV pulled Ian to the shop, that’s maybe what pulled me to the actual TV?”

“That...opens up a lot of possibilities if it’s true Miss Mizuno.” Mr. McPasta gripped his chin and Hana could practically see the gears turning in his head, presented with this new information. Mai still looked at a lost for words, if not even more so now. 

Contrasting to what Hana had feared, neither of the two immediately jumped to point out that this meant Hana was technically the reason Ian was stuck in the void. If either reached that conclusion, they kept it firmly in their heads.

“We should test that before jumping to conclusions though…that is, if you’re okay with it.” Creeps said, eyeing the TV.

Hana looked at it again herself and chewed her lip. He was right of course, they wouldn’t get anywhere without knowing for  _ sure _ . “Of course.”

Mr. McPasta silently strode over to the shelf holding it, and brought it out, placing it on his desk. 

“I’m going to turn this on, I don’t want you to touch it just yet, just tell me if you feel any different when I do.” Mr McPasta explained, voice even and calm. Hana nodded. It was worth the risk. Anything was, as far as she was concerned. He was about to switch it on when Mai interrupted. 

“Are you sure about this? If you’re connected to it what if…” Mai’s voice was shaky, and when she looked at Hana she could see a tremble about her whole body as well. “I don’t want to lose you to the void too.”

“I’ll be fine Mai.” Hana assured her. “Ian messed with the TV  _ before  _ the day he disappeared, it’s gotta be something specific he did that sent him to the void.”

Hana did not actually one hundred percent believe she’d be fine but Mai didn’t need to know that. She grabbed her friend’s hand and gave it a squeeze. 

The TV flicked on. Mai squeezed her hand back.

There was shift in the air, but Hana was pretty sure that was just all the tension hanging around. Nothing happened except for the sound of static filling the air. It brought Hana’s horrid nightmare from a few days ago to the forefront of her mind, but nothing else.

Listening closer though...was that talking under the static? It was indistinct, and sounded like someone whispering. Neither Mr. McPasta or Mai pointed it out. 

“I hear something. Someone talking.” Hana said. She let go of Mai’s hand and walked closer to hear it better.

“All I can hear is static.” Mai replied, scooting the chair closer to the TV. Going from her screwed up, concentrated face, she still couldn’t hear it.

“Nor can I.” Mr McPasta turned up the volume as if to be sure, but shook his head, affirming he still could not. “Well. I think you were right on the money about having a connection as well.” 

“Do you want me to do anything else with it? That whispering I’m hearing could be important if I could hear it. Maybe if I mess with this it’ll come in better... ” Hana reached forward, hand drawing closer to the antenna. Mr. McPasta stopped her, putting his own on top of it. 

“All we needed to know is if you were tied to it, we needn’t add any more risk. You’re our only link, and it would be disastrous if you wound up in the void as well.”  Mr. McPasta took his hand off of Hana’s, and she retreated it. That was...that was true. But what if…

He flicked off the TV.  No, she’d risked enough in the past two days.

A remnant of the buzzing static lingered almost painfully in Hana’s head and she tried to ignore it as the conversation went on.

“I do see promise in you fiddling with the TV during the next  _ Televoid  _ however...I played with it and it had an effect on Ian. I imagine if you did...Well there’s potential that could be his way out.”

“Or Hana could just end up there too.”  said Mai, scowling at the mere thought of entertaining this idea. “I really don’t like this.”

“It’s either we risk it or do nothing. We’d be screwed either way if something happens to me, but at least there’s a  _ chance _ of getting Ian back.” 

“ _ Why do you- _ ” Mai held her tongue, and pressed her lip together. She inhaled sharply. “Never mind. I guess we’ll try it.”

After reaching that agreement(sort of, Hana knew Mai still wasn’t happy with the idea), they decided it was high time they head out of the nurse’s office. They’d gotten lucky with nobody needing any assistance while they were talking to him, but any longer may be pushing their luck.

The anxiety and suspense of waiting for another episode had never been higher. Especially since it was still a whole five days away…


	23. Chapter 23

“Earth to Hana? You okay over there?”

Hana ceased spacing out into her half eaten lunch when Wallid poked her on the side of her head. She forced a pained smile. “Sorry, I’m feeling a little under the weather is all.” she rubbed her head. One of the worst headaches of her life was invading her head at the moment. The  _ other  _ worst headaches having been scattered throughout the past two days. Since she’d heard the whispers on that TV in fact. 

That didn’t necessarily mean a connection other than of circumstance though. Hana wanted to doubt that it was anything more than the stress getting to her. Her anxiety didn’t always manifest itself physically, but when it did, it hit  _ hard. _ She was at least glad it wasn’t nausea this time. 

“Maybe you should head to the nurse instead of class? You’ve been  _ completely  _ checking out.” Jimmy said. If only they knew how often she’d actually been going to the nurse lately...She shook her head, regretting the action immediately because  _ wow _ that did not help the throbbing, an excuse at the ready.

“Thanks but I was just going to pop some ibuprofen. I’m not  _ sick  _ it’s uh…you know, that time of the month...”  a nervous smile graced Hana’s features. It was not so much the subject of an imaginary period that caused it, more that she was lying, but that probably sold it. 

“Oh, I got some up in my locker if you wanna leave a bit early?” Jeff asked. Her Hidden Block clubmates always took stuff like this ridiculously well and casually. It was nice. And Hana actually didn’t have any herself, she’d run out, so she agreed. 

“Luke, can you tell Mai where I am?” she asked as she picked up her tray. Mid bite and not wanting to talk with his mouth full of peas, he shot her a thumbs up. She took a hand off her tray and gave him one back, before bidding the club rest of them farewell and heading off with Jeff. 

“So um. You hanging in there all right Jeff?” she spoke up. She hadn’t really inquired about how he was doing since the spat with the club had been resolved. She doubted student council  _ or _ the stress of Ian still being gone had alleviated. 

He scratched at the stubble on his cheeks. “Uh...kind of I guess. Running student council's been rough with all this going on, especially since, you know, nobody knows how finding Ian is going ‘cause they’re keeping that all hush hush. Just stress on top of more stress, you know?”

“I can only imagine.” Hana gripped the sleeve of her jacket and squeezed it absently. 

“I think I’ve actually heard people talking about...Ah never mind.” he lightly slapped his forehead. ”Soccer’s been going good though! I think channeling my frustration into kicking the ball is really working out for us.”

“ _ Jeff _ .” Hana said, squinting, not buying into the cheerful attitude he was currently, absolutely, faking. A noise of annoyance at Hana seeing through his weak facade escaped, and he relented.

“People think I’m too stressed to do the job. ” he paused his his stride, his hand hitting a locker to lean against with a soft  _ thump  _ “I’ve been hearing people want me to step down and let Paul come back.” 

Hana squinted even more . “...Ian is Paul’s friend too. That sounds less about worrying about the president being stressed out and more about  _ who’s  _ the president.”

“Who knows Hana.” Jeff turned and started opening the locker next to the one he’d slumped against. Within moments, he produced a little while bottle with a red cap and handed it over to Hana. “Here you go.”

She grabbed it, spilling two out into her hand and taking them with the rest of her water from lunch. Hopefully they’d at least quell some of the pounding in her head.“I guess I really know what you mean when you said student council was stressing you out now.” 

“Eh doesn’t mean me being a dick was justified.”

“Oh I wasn’t saying  _ that _ . You were a huge jerk, I just get why now.” Hana stuck out her tongue. Jeff responded with a smirk, and aggressively ruffled her hair. She made a face; him, Ian and Luke were  _ always  _ doing that to her, and if she wanted to get revenge she’d make a fool of herself. hopping to get to their heads. It was taking unfair advantage of their height if you asked her.

Students were rapidly filling the hall now, and as Jeff closed his locker, Hana heard the warning bell ringing. She groaned, the sound not helping her headache in the slightest. Jeff looked up, mildly startled by the sound.

“Hey you better get going, don’t need you being late to class.” he pointed out. Hana started walking away, but not without retorting.

“I could just say I was with the president to get out of it.” she said with an innocent smile and a bat of her eyes. 

“Ha! Nope, no special privileges, Peebs tried that too. Go to class Hana.”

-o-

Hana was on time for class but only just, plopping into her seat behind Mai just as the bell aggravated her head again. It was already getting a little better, but noises still aggravated it immensely. Hopefully Miss Shizuka was in a good mood and wouldn’t be doing any yelling today.

Mai was sitting with her head down, not having taken notice of her friend taking her seat. Hana prodded her on the shoulder, so she’d snap to attention before the Miss Shizuka, who was walking in at that moment, caught her. Mai jolted up, and turned to Hana with a smile. 

Hana smiled back, and keeping her voice low asked,“Hey there, how was lunch?” 

“There.” Mai replied, she let out a little sigh.

“...Everything okay over at the Normal Boots table? You know you’re welcome at ours if anything’s going on. ” Hana assured her

“It’s all fine over there, I’m just having a ‘meh’ kind of day.” Mai said. She turned back around and craned her neck past the boy in front of her to see how closely their teacher was paying attention. She was heavily involved with a tangent, so Mai viewed that as it being safe to keep talking. “How ‘bout you. That headache any better?”

Hana held her hand flat and shook it to gesture ‘kind of’ “I took something for it and it’s okayish now, but loud noises are making it worse.”

“Hm. Ever since you heard that shit coming from the TV right?” Mai said, very pointedly, as she turned back when she thought Shizuka might be looking. 

...Mai had picked up on that? “I’m sure it’s just the stress, Mai.”

“Or it’s the spooky portal to another dimension disguised as a television messing with with your head.”

“Mai,  _ shh! _ We shouldn’t be talking about  _ that _ in class.” Hana hissed, looking about her for anyone who might be paying attention. There didn’t seem be but...they really should keep talking about  _ Televoid  _ to a  _ minimum _ around other people.

“Nobody’s paying attention. You’re avoiding the subject too.” Mai whispered, at least lowering her voice a bit more.

“I’m sure it’s just a weird side effect, if even it is that. I’m not... _ going _ anywhere.” she said, well aware of what Mai was trying to imply.

“ _ Girls _ ,” Miss Shizuka rose her voice, looking right at the two of them. “Is there something more interesting than the Great Flame War of Battleoff I’m not aware of?”

“...No Miss Shizuka.” the two of them mumbled.

“Hmf.” she turned back to the blackboard. Moment of embarrassment at being called out for talking during class aside, Hana was grateful for something to halt the conversation about  _ Televoid  _ Mai was trying to have. It wasn’t the time or place to argue, and Hana optimistically believed the headaches themselves were the only negative effect of her connection with the television. 

There  _ had  _ been that almost uncontrollable want to try to do more with the thing right then and there but...that just was in the moment. She’d gotten the feeling that had been more than just her own wanting so the thing had maybe gotten into her head a  _ little _ but she was fine now.

Hana drew herself out of her thoughts, and tried to pay attention to the lesson in front of her. It was far easier than this morning, she should’ve tried taking more than one ibuprofen before.  The headache felt like it was fading faster by the minute.

Just. Fine.


	24. Chapter 24

Today was the day.  _ Finally _ , thought Hana, as she wandered distracted through her usual morning routine. It was hard to focus. She was feeling rather giddy with not quite  _ excitement _ that didn’t entirely feel like the right word to her. Anticipation was more apt. Determination too.

Tonight…Tonight it could all be over. Come the next episode of Televoid airing, they could have Ian back after all these weeks. Hana wondered how they were going to  _ explain _ how he’d gotten back when they did. 

But...well that was getting ahead of herself wasn’t it? She still had a whole day of class to go, not to mention that her fiddling with the antenna and settings being able to bring him back was technically only a hypothesis. It could fail. They could have to wait another week and try something else. All things considered, she should put more effort into keeping her mind focused on the present. That was proving difficult though.

“Hana, you put your sweater on backwards.”

As she was putting on her club jacket, Hana noticed that the mistake Mai had pointed out and rolled her eyes at herself. She took the jacket off, turned her sweater the right way around and threw it back on. She’d awoken nearly an hour before her alarm, too jittery to fall back asleep and had plenty of time to wake up properly so she couldn’t blame that on tiredness.  Today was going to be an interesting day. 

Mai hummed as the two of them went about gathering their stuff for class. Her roommate was in a good mood. Weird, considering her apprehension for how they were planning to try to get Ian back but maybe the hope of getting him back that their plan brought was starting to win out? Who knows…

“It’s gonna be a  _ long _ day.” Hana said as the two of them left their room. It was only 7am and   _ Televoid  _ came on at around 2:30am, technically the  _ next  _ morning, but they wouldn’t be sleeping beforehand. Luckily, the group had made a plan to meet up in their spooky classroom meeting place well before then tonight, so there wouldn’t be a chance of them missing out on it this time.

“Yup.” Mai agreed, the punctuating the word with a loud popping sound. “Nothing we can do about that unfortunately.”

“What I’d kill for a time machine.” Hana muttered, voice deadpan ...Skipping ahead to the future because she was impatient being a gross misuse of time travel aside.

‘Heh. Yeah...” Mai replied. 

Sometime after passing Bluebelle, the pair of them caught up Satch and Luke, who waved them over as soon as they saw them. They made a point of keeping their group well away from any others walking, and shifting the conversation anytime someone got close enough to overhear anything. 

What they had was pretty solid, it was still the matter of sneaking out to Poppy Hall well after curfew that would be a lot of pressure. 

“If we’re caught  _ in  _ the classroom, that’s questionable but we still have a faculty member with us...Mr. McPasta suggested we claim we’re part of a scary story club if that happens.” Satch explained. That was as good of an excuse as they were going to come up with. Creepy classroom in the dead of night, what other kind of club would do something like that?

“Hopefully they buy that, otherwise it’d probably look like Creeps was trying to start a cult with students or something.” Mai said, raising her eyebrows.  Oh. _ That _ kind of ‘club’ hadn’t exactly crossed Hana’s mind. Now that she thought of it...oh jeez anyone who walked in on what they were planning probably  _ would _ think they were a cult.

“Well let’s just pray it doesn’t come to that…” Hana mumbled, shaking her head. They had  _ enough _ to worry about. 

“Agreed.” Satch said, fixing his glasses that were starting to slide down his nose. “I’ve gotten some advice from Jared and Luke regarding getting to Poppy Hall without being caught though.”

Luke grinned mischievously. “You guys ever been in the tunnels under the school?”

“...That  _ what? _ ” Mai’s eyes shot wide open. Hana, though not as caught off guard as her roommate, wasn’t without her surprise as well.

“Those are real? I thought Jirard was  _ kidding  _ about them!” 

“Nope, how d’you think we got to our D&D games every week without getting caught?” Luke asked, an eyebrow. Hana respected Jared’s desire for secrecy, so she didn’t say anything, but that still felt like that was a  _ lot _ of trouble to go through to keep it hush hush.

Mai shook her head, and Hana had a feeling she was thinking along the same lines as her. “Okay so we use those...Uh. How do we get  _ into _ the tunnels?”  

“There’s an entrance in the basement of Bluebelle, that’s going to be the easiest for us.” Satch explained.

“It’ll probably make it easier if you guys just come hang at my room sometime before curfew and we can head out later.” Luke said, playing with the brim of his hat. “Keeps the chance of getting caught to a low right?”

“Works for me.” Mai said with a shrug. Yeah they wouldn’t be getting  _ anything _ done tonight, it would ease Hana to be sitting and waiting with their group rather than just in her room with Mai. Plus this way, they wouldn’t been seen sneaking  _ into _ Bluebelle late at night. That would raise...a  _ lot _ of questions. 

“Do you want us to head there straight after dinner or…?” 

“Uh, I’ll text you when to come over. I got some stuff to do before I can have anyone over.” Luke avoided eye contact as he said this. Hana got an impression that his room  _ maybe  _ wasn’t the cleanest at the moment and he wanted to fix that. She’d seen Luke and Ian bicker over Luke leaving stuff lying around before and she hadn’t been in there since Ian disappeared now that she thought about it.

“Alright, good to have that squared away.” Satch noted. “Man, I can’t believe we might be done with this all tonight. It’s...been a ride.”

“If this is a ride, it’s a rollercoaster and I definitely want  _ off _ .” Hana said pointedly. She liked this situation just about as much as she liked thrill rides: Not at all. “It is kind of crazy though. I mean except....We’ll still have the fallout from him being  _ in _ the void won’t we? Being stuck there for over a month can’t be easy to bounce back from.”

“He’ll be out though.” Luke said, patting Hana’s back. “That’s the big thing.”

Their conversation went dead quiet as they drew close to Poppy Hall, here was too big of a risk to continue on discussing this. Hana wouldn’t be missing all this sneaking around, secrecy, and private meetings when this was over with.

-o-

“1:45, is it still too early?” Mai glanced back and forth from the clock to her three friends. All of them had spent a good portion of the night doing quite the same. It was hard not to, and now they they were so close…Everyone was antsy, Hana and Mai so much so they’d barely been able to eat that day.

“It’ll take about fifteen minutes to get to Poppy, few more to get to the classroom...” Luke tapped his chin, working out how much time that’d give them. “So we’d get there with what, a little less than half an hour before  _ Televoid  _ comes on?“

Satch moved his head back and forth as he thought it over. “I think we might as well head there. Best to have time to spare.”

The four of them nodded as one, and being as silent as they possible could, started to slip out the door. Hana was the last one out, took a final look at a certain Hidden Block jacket that was still hanging on a chair. That look said one thing.

_ We’re coming for you Ian. _

She shut the door slowly, and in front of her, Satch was surveying the hallway. Hana joined him. No lights from under the doors, no noise…He gestured them on with a flick of his arm. 

Hana was glad she had the benefit of being short and tiny, she wasn’t sure how good she’d be at stealth if she were as tall and muscular as Luke, for example. She was impressed he’d managed this so many times.  She tread even more carefully when they reached the stairs. They weren’t making a  _ lot _ of it, but the noise was there. Reasonably, she knew if the average student caught them, there would be nothing more than a raised eyebrow before they went back to bed. It was almost an unwritten rule amongst Asagao students to let it slide if you saw someone out after curfew. She tried to remind herself of that.

When they got to the landing for second floor, they hit a snag. The snag in question, Hana was unsure of at first because it presented itself as Satch suddenly stopping, and her bumping into his back. Then she heard it; footsteps. She held her breath. Gotta be quiet...

Her stomach decided to ignore that idea. A low rumble came from it, and she cringed, closing her eyes. Oh god…

The footsteps got further away. When she opened her eyes, it was to relief flooding through their party. She scratched her neck, face turning red, she should’ve eaten more at dinner... 

That was the only incident though, when Luke gestured them into a doorway strategically hidden behind some junk in the basement, she knew they were home free. 

The tunnels themselves were lined with concrete on all sides, save for the floor which by the light give with each step Hana took, was just packed earth. “What are these tunnels  _ from  _ anyway?” she asked, eyes flicking to the assorted, years old graffiti scattered about the walls.

“Nobody really knows.” Satch said, pointing a flashlight ahead of them. “Especially since not many people know about the tunnels in the first place.”

“That could be our next mystery to solve.” Mai quipped, drumming her hands against the side. Though, Hana was of the opinion that she’d had enough mystery solving for her entire life. “I mean we’re a regular Dooby Gang at this point aren’t we?

Luke grinned and a chuckle escaped him. “If we’re the gang, then  _ I  _ call Ted.”

_ The discussions that happened when people were sleep deprived and jittery… _ Hana mused, as Mai looked at Luke he had six heads. “Why would you  _ want _ to be Ted, he’s so boring.” 

“He’s the idea guy though, comes up with all the plans, that’s pretty dope.” 

Mai snorted. “In that case,  _ Satch  _ is Ted. You’re Raggy.”

“Aw  _ come on _ .”

“At least I didn’t say you were the dog.”

“ _ Guys _ .” Satch scolded, though it sounded more amused than angry. As funny as Mai and Luke bickering over which Dooby-Scoo characters they’d be was to listen to, this just wasn’t the time or place. “Luke we’re almost there right?”

“Mhmm, next left and we’ll almost be at Poppy Hall’s basement.” he affirmed.  The conversation faded after he said so. It was the air of true finality that was there. All day they’d been thinking:  _ Tonight is the night.  _

Luke pushed the door open, ushering them into another basement.

_ Night is finally here. _

Without a hitch, they reached the disused classroom, hopefully for the last of their meetings there.

_ It’s time to get Ian back. _


	25. Chapter 25

Mr. McPasta and the television were waiting for them in the classroom. Hana could feel it before even entering the room, her headache coming back from proximity to the thing. Looked like Mai’s hunch about that was right. 

“Just in time. Twenty minutes until  _ Televoid _ .” Mr. McPasta pointed to the portable little set, which was displaying the white noise. Twenty minutes. Not long, but this was going to be the most grueling twenty minutes of Hana’s entire life…

It didn’t help that as they waited, conversation absent as everyone was too tense to do anything other than sit in silent anticipation, that strange effect the TV had on Hana returned. Whispers from the speaker  that, though she couldn’t decipher, some part of her knew what they were saying. They were beckoning her to do something with it. She had strong suspicions that something similar had happened to Ian when he started messing with the set.

...Was their plan tonight playing straight into whatever was in charge of the Void’s hands?

“Sir, can you...turn down the volume, for now at least?” Hana cringed and put her head in her hand. 

Mr. McPasta complied, and that eased things a little bit, though only in regards to the whispering. Her headache was still present. As were the worried looks exchanged between Satch, Mai and Luke. 

“You one hundred percent sure you’re up for this Hana?” Luke asked, his chest pressing into the back of the chair he was sitting backwards in as he leaned forward. 

Hana huffed. Why was everyone so much more worried about her being uncomfortable than what was at stake?  “I’m not backing out now. I’m doing this. Unless one of you has a better plan?”

Nothing was said. Maybe that had been a bit too much attitude-wise but well...Hana wasn’t keen on the idea of letting Ian stay trapped another hour, let alone a week.

“Miss Mizuno I’m going to turn the volume back up now, it’s almost time.” Mr McPasta crossed over back to do so as she acknowledged him with a nod. “I’d also like to ask you to come here, and I’ll explain what I did that caused the technical difficulties last time so you can repeat it.”

She stood up from her chair and walked over to the TV. Even close up, she was reminded what a tiny set it was, how small the screen was. She stood to the side of the desk it sat on, to not block what little view they had. 

“Now, all I did was move the antenna around...like so.” Mr. McPasta grabbed the antenna and moved it back and forth. “I also extended it and put it back down. I’m not going to do  _ that  _ before the show comes on so as not to risk anything, but we’re taking any chance we have once it  _ is  _ on.”

“So...I guess I’m not really going to be able to watch much while I’m doing this, can you guys tell me what’s going on while I mess with this?” Hana craned her neck and concluded that it would require too much contortion to see the screen well without putting her head right in front of it. “Especially if something I’m doing is having a big effect.”

“No problem.” Satch glanced at his phone to check the time, and scooted his chair closer to the screen. Hana took a peek at hers as well, nervousness creeping up her chest. 2:32. Any minute now…

2:33.

The whispers from the speakers felt like they were getting quieter, but the static was starting to grate on Hana. Her mind drifted back to her nightmare, parts of which were still vivid in her mind even a week later.

_ “Imagine hearing nothing but that for days on end.” _

2:34.

A familiar tune, that though innocent and catchy in nature Hana had begun to despise, played through the classroom and Hana held her breath.  Music and humming followed it. She didn’t look at it, as much as she wanted to, and started wiggling the antenna.

Mr. McPasta clued her in first. “It’s security footage, like last time I watched through this.” 

Mai’s voice was unsteady as she reported to her as well. “He’s...not looking good. I really hope this is it because...”

Hane closed her eyes. Don’t look. Don’t get yourself more worried.  _ Don’t look. _

She didn’t hear a proper intro this time. Ian went straight to snarking at what they were watching today. God he sounded so...so…

Tired.  _ Broken. _

If anyone couldn’t tell Ian didn’t want to be there before, it was plain as a day now. Hana was just listening and she could hear it in every word he spoke. Her hand went up the antenna, preparing to extend it and see what happened.

**_Bzzzzzt!_ **

_ “This film is called  _ A Message To No One _ and it was produced..” _

A flash of buzzing and a sudden change of attitude. Hana had a bad feeling about this, that can’t have been an effect of her messing with it yet, she hadn’t really done much. She recalled the static skipping over the intro Ian had given in episode one.

_ “Ugh...”  _ a light grunt of pain was heard, and then Hana extended the antenna as quick as she could. Whatever that static was it... _ hurt _ him. She wasn’t having any of that, she needed to get him out  _ NOW _ .

“Is it doing anything?” It felt a stupid question for her to ask, they’d  have told her surely but she had to know since she couldn’t see herself at the moment. 

“There’s some light color splitting but I think that’s an effect of the static, not you.” Satch reported, eliciting a frustrated sigh from Hana. Was Mr. McPasta wrong about her being able to do more than him? 

“Try uh, moving it in and out maybe?” Luke’s vision was fixed on the screen, where Ian continued to review the film like normal. Hana went right to that, praying for  _ something  _ to happen. This can’t just  _ not  _ work because it turned out she was doing something wrong. Please be it…

“It’s working, he’s like... _ glitching _ , holy shit.” Mai said, slack jawed. Hana allowed herself a moment to peer at the TV trying to block as little of it as should could as she fiddled and...well sure enough Mai was right. It was subtle, little distortions around him, but it was happening. Hana turned her full attention back to the antenna, she was on the right track.

“This is what was happening last time, when I played with it. Keep it up Miss Mizuno.”

Oh he needn’t worry about that. She went about it more furiously, adjusting and adjusting the length, moving it about, up and down. As she did so, Ian’s jokes and commentary halted to a stop. He must have been seeing and feeling what was happening.

“He’s noticed it.It’s getting stronger.” Satch leaned forward in his seat, as if trying to catch every little detail he could. “I don’t think there’s any going back now.”

“Come... _ on _ .” Hana growled at the thing. She could feel...energy surging up from it. If this was a portal or door to another dimension, or whatever, that could be it charging up, it getting ready to bring him back! This had to be it!

“Dude hold up, the whole picture’s bugging out now.” Luke held up a hand. “I think it might be messing with the actual signal or something.”

“No, I...I can  _ feel  _ something. I think it’s bringing him back!” Hana protested, she tilted the antenna in a such a way that made the energy more intense. It felt like static electricity, she could feel the tingle on her fingers and her hair sticking up. 

Mai was shaking her head, and jumped to Luke’s side. “Luke’s right, I don’t think it’s working anymore. It’s normal again. He’s gone back to reviewing the show Hana, I don’t like this.”

“ _ Let me do this! _ ” Hana shouted, part from desperation, part from the fact that the tingling energy coming from the TV was getting more and more intense and it was getting to her. She couldn’t stop now though, it had to have been using her as a...channel of some kind. She was connected to the TV and to this world. That had to be what was going on. It wasn’t hurting her, just making things really uncomfortable. And that was worth it in her book. She’d be okay afterwards.

“Urgh…” she couldn’t stop a grunt from escaping her. It was...she couldn’t think….Her chest was starting to hurt a bit now… She shut her eyes, a warm red glow from the light of electricity flowing around her still present through her eyelids.

“ _ Hana! _ **_Stop!_ ** ” Satch’s voice was urgent, but Hana didn’t think she could even though she was starting to want to. Maybe this was what she had to do though...

“Can’t…” 

“Miss Mizuno  **_you’re_ ** glitching now _ , _ you must let go!” Mr. McPasta was only just audible above the crackling around her, and honestly she’d  _ love  _ to let go  _ now  _ but it wasn’t letting her. She was stuck, she couldn’t move. Hana opened her mouth to respond, but a shriek ran through the room  instead as the tingling electricity turned very  _ painful _ .

“ **_Hana!_ ** ” Mai’s desperate cry was the last thing Hana heard before it went quiet. 

Hana was on her hands and knees, and felt..nothing. Not even a remnant of being shocked present to her nerves. She exhaled, relieved. That had to have been it, right? She stood up, and opened her eyes.

Empty black expanded in front of her. 

Something was wrong. Something was very,  _ very _ , wrong. For half a moment, she thought she might’ve been blinded.

Then she heard it. And in an instant she knew.

Static.

She was in the void.


	26. Chapter 26

Ian swore vigorously at the open air, to whoever was keeping him trapped here. Bitter, rage filled words spilled from his mouth.  “Are you  _ fucking  _ kidding me? You’re not even going to let me finish this piece of shit movie? What, do I have to like  _ every single fucking thing _ you make me watch or you shut it off?”

Well aware of how childish a reaction it was, but not caring, Ian kicked the stand the TV was on, At least he was resisting the urge to slam his foot through the noise filled screen. 

He turned to the camera. It was off. Like the episode had ended early, but he could still feel a presence. This had happened before of course, so he supposed whoever was keeping him still had an eye on him. 

Anger still coursed through Ian but it died down as he felt more dispirited. Were they mad at him for acting a little out of line and punishing him? That’d look a little shady to the viewers he imagined but...they could call technical difficulties.  He held up his hand that had been freaking out, glitching like a VHS tape moments ago. Maybe they  _ were  _ having them though? He’d assumed that was a byproduct of whatever hurt him earlier but...

His thoughts were sidetracked when he noticed  _ another _ presence in the room. A more concrete one, someone there in the corner of his eye. Another guest akin to Frank the Fox he supp-

...No.

At the sight of pink and black and yellow, Ian knew who he was looking at and all the blood drained out of his face.

She took notice of him as he did of her. They locked eyes and Ian wanted to _scream_ at her that _no you can’t be here you shouldn’t be here._ The words stuck in his throat though, and he was caught off guard as she ran, barreling at him.

From that day forth, Ian would be certain there wasn’t anything that matched the unexpected strength of Hana Mizuno tackle hugging someone.

“ _ Holy shit _ .” he breathed as his friend made impact, knocking the air out of his lungs and him almost into the chair as she hugged him. It was near impossible for Ian to explain his emotions right then. How did he articulate to Hana the feeling of simultaneously being  _ happier than anything _ yet  _ horrified  _ that she was here?

Loss of words aside and complex emotions aside, a hug from one of his best friends was more than welcomed right now, and he wrapped his arms around her.

“ _ I missed you so much.”  _ she whispered, voice lined with relief and on the edge of crying. She didn’t care where this reunion was taking place, it was if nothing else mattered except that she was here next to her best friend.

For this small instant, nothing else mattered to him either. Ian  _ smiled _ , the first truly genuine smile since he’d gotten trapped in the void. “Missed you too, kiddo.”

They stayed that way until eventually, reluctantly, Hana backed away from him, smoothing her skirt and fixing her jacket. She beamed up at him with joyful tears in her eyes. The euphoria of the moment was wearing off on Ian though, his smile gave way to a small grimace, his brows furrowing. “Hana...you shouldn’t be here…”

“Neither should you.” 

“That’s not what I  _ meant _ . One of us trapped here is bad enough how did you even-” Ian groaned, brushing his hair out of his face. “You figured out the TV didn’t you?”

“I had some help.” she shrugged. “Uh, you see when Mai and I found out about Televoid…”

She launched into a story, of her and Satch realizing they’d both seen it. Of convincing Luke of what they’d seen and to watch it. Of getting Mr. McPasta to help(He really should be less surprised about that, of course Nurse Spooky himself would end up involved in some paranormal mystery) Of her going into the city to find-wait _ excuse him? _

“Uh, what was that about going into the city  _ by yourself? _ ” Ian quirked an eyebrow. She  _ did not  _ do something that reckless for his sake. 

“Oh come on,” she said with a pout. “Mai already lectured me about that.  _ Anyway _ . Long story short, we figured out I was connected to the TV too, maybe the plan was to get both of us here, I don’t know but-”

Ian’s hand went to his face. “Well if it  _ was  _ they got their wish.” 

“ _ Oi _ , stop interrupting me.” She nudged him with her elbow. All her strength had gone into her hug apparently, that was  _ weak _ and Ian almost laughed. “When we watched it this time, we thought if I played with it, it would bring you back but um instead…Well…” 

She laughed nervously, and held out her arms gesturing to herself. “Here I am.”

“Here you are…” 

“I’m sure...I  _ bet  _ the others will be able to figure something out before tonight is over. And, if anything you have some company now?” She said, smile wavering and awkward. Ian appreciated Hana’s sentiment, he truly did but he couldn’t feel optimistic about this. Even if her being here was making him feel more _ sane _ than he had in a long while.

“The void’s not happy about this Hana. I can tell.” Ian’s eyes were on the TV, the usual noise had become faster and was warping and tearing more furiously than he’d ever seen. “Or, whoever’s in charge of the void I guess. 

“Too bad for them then.” She reached up to put an arm on his shoulder. 

“Hana, you don’t understand, they can do,” he swallowed and gripped at his chest absently. “ _ A lot _ . A lot of bad shit. Whoever or whatever is keeping me here doesn’t like it if something out of line happens and they use all the power they have over this place to let me know that. You showing up here during an episode is  _ definitely _ out of line.”  

Hana’s confidence melted somewhat then, he watched her look around the part of the void they were in, her fingers fidgeting as nervousness washed over her. She turned back to him. “What do you...What did they do to you?”

This was not a conversation he wanted to have. He closed his eyes. 

“I don’t really want to get into it, they...fucked with my head a lot. Among other things.” If he never had to feel the awful sensation that came when the void... _ changed _ things it would be far too soon. 

“Ian…” she said, and she looked ready to cry again, and not out of happiness this time. Hana hung her head. “I’m sorry.”

“Christ, I’m not  _ mad  _ at you for how you tried to get me out.” he said, stopping her there.How could she believe that? Her being here was bad, but  _ why _ she was here was out of completely pure intentions. “ _ Definitely _ not.” 

“It’s not that it’s…” she said with a sniffle, and lifted her glasses so she could wipe her eyes with her sleeve. “It’s my fault you’re here in the first place. I’m the one who found that  _ stupid TV _ .”

“ _ Woah _ , hey.” Ian put his hands on her shoulders, reassuring her. “Hey, c’mon you just found something you thought I’d like, you weren’t the stupid idiot who was like  _ ‘Let’s go to a shady secondhand electronics store!’ _ and basically turned his life into an episode of  _ The Midnight Zone. _ ” 

Hana laughed a little, a watery smile on her face. “I guess you’re gonna want to wait to get back watching that together after we’re out of here huh?”

“Hate to say it but yeah I think I’m gonna have to swear off old TV for a little while.” If they get out of here that is...Ian was uncertain how the others would be able to manager it. He wanted to be hopeful but his time in the void had basically been hope after hope being crushed. Probably by design. 

“They had you watch some  _ weird _ stuff in here.”

“Tell me about it…” he muttered, mind especially going to the thing they’d tried to show him on today’s episode before Hana interrupted the broadcast.

Apparently a mental insult to  _ A Message to No One  _ was a last straw of sorts, because almost before he finished the thought, that was when the TV went batshit. It caught the two friends’ attention, the volume going up all the way on its own, and as they stared at it it the picture freaked out and eerie distorted music played. It was random flashes of the show and other weird things. Like when he’d had the antenna extended. A quick glance told Ian the camera was on again too...

From somewhere in the void came a gail of wind. Paper from the printer blew around, the leaves of the potted plant shook erratically, and his skin stung. The wind that was assaulting them was icy cold. He covered his face with his arm, and felt Hana cling to his other one and turn her face into his shoulder.

_ They’re kicking it up a notch.  _ He thought. 

“Does this happen a lot?” Hana said, her slightly muffled voice rising to speak above all the noise around them. 

“No, they must be  _ really  _ pissed.” Ian kept his composure, but inside he was screaming. What were they going to do to the two of them? Was this just trying to scare them, or the beginning of something worse?

The wind picked up, swirling loose paper around the room furiously. 

Then it halted. All the papers fluttered to the ground, right by the TV. Given what was going on in the screen that wasn’t by coincidence. It wanted their eyes on it.

There they stood in black in white. One familiar to Ian, one new. Blank copies of him and Hana. He had nothing left in him but pure  _ fear _ at the sight of them. 

**_“Stop.”_ **

The copy of Hana’s voice, distorted, filled with authority and anger, spoke at them. Ian’s heart was beating loudly in his chest, he didn’t want to see the look on the girl herself if he was panicking this much...

**_“Ours.”_ **

His copy spoke as well, less garbled and  _ possessive _ . The copies kept repeating those two words and Ian covered his ears. He couldn’t...he couldn’t take it…

**“** **_Noooo!”_ ** the copies hissed together. At what, he had no idea, but whoever was controlling them was filled with more rage than ever.

Ian could feel it again, the stinging pins and needles inside him, in his heart, his lungs, where they should  _ never  _ be. He coughed profusely, clawed at his chest,not caring that he might be leaving scratch marks. It needed to stop, it needed to  _ stop _ . It had never been this bad...he felt…

He felt like he was dying. Judging from how he could feel his consciousness slipping away now...maybe he was.

Maybe that’d be better than the void.

-o-

“Oh my god, ohmigod it’s them.”

“Ho- _ly_ _crap_.”

“Hana, can you hear me?”

Voices went in and out of her ears, but all that was on Hana’s mind was that she was already getting rather tired of ending up on floors. That and the uncomfortable pain in her chest. She opened her eyes to Satch standing over her, relief flooded him. He held out his hand for her. Unsteady, everything in her being trembling, she grabbed it and let him pull her up. A hug awaited her. It was firm, comforting, exactly what she could use right now.

“Glad you’re are back with us.”  He said, looking at her with an eased, relieved smile. Hana returned it, at least for a split second before it faded and her thoughts jumped elsewhere.

“Is Ian…” she moved her head about the room, finding Ian laying limp on the floor, Mr. McPasta crouched beside him. She froze, her mind going to the worse of places. “ _ No… _ ”

Satch squeezed her again. “He’s just knocked out.”

He was abruptly pushed out of the way by Mai, and a bear hug that practically crushed Hana’s already hurting lungs soon followed.  “ _ Don’t you dare do anything that reckless ever again I swear- _ ”

Hana hugged back, burying her face in Mai’s shoulder. She was sincere was she told her, “I won’t. I promise.”  It wasn’t like anything in her life had a chance of coming even remotely close to how insane the events of the last few weeks had been and necessitate it anyway. 

Looking around the curtain of Mai’s hair, Hana could see the portable tv...sitting and smoldering with a broken screen. She blinked. “What...did you guys  _ do..? _ ” 

“Mai messed with the TV and it exploded.” Luke said, sounding as surprised by the simplicity of it as Hana was. “Then there was this weird glitchy stuff in the room which turned out to be you and Ian.”

“You’re telling me….if we  _ blew up the TV _ we could’ve have Ian back weeks ago.” Hana said warily. 

“I believe there’s more to it than that Miss Mizuno.” Mr. McPasta was half carrying a still unconscious Ian with one of his arms around his shoulders. A curious, unsettling smile formed on his face. “We could see through the TV you took a little trip to the Void. How was that?”

“Uh, judging from all that freaky business and those creepy as hell copies of her and Ian, no beuno.” Luke said, right on the money. Huh...maybe they’d been talking to  _ them _ not her and Ian, if Mai had been messing with the TV and bringing them back.

“Yeah. That.” Hana agreed. She groaned, the pain in her chest was fading, but still there. She grimaced and slipped her hand through Mai’s arms to grip it like that would relieve the pain.

“Everything okay?” Mai asked, hug loosening but still hanging onto her. 

“My chest...think it’s something the void did…” A wave of tiredness went over her too. Unsurprising, she’d barely slept in the last day, despite the reunion with Ian her time in the void had been exhausting in so many ways. “Ugh I think I need to lay down.”

“Righto, let’s get you back to the dorm. You should probably duck out of class tomorrow, just to be safe.” Mai suggested. Hana had no issue with that. Mai started to guide her to the door, following Mr. McPasta. “Uhh sir, what’re you gonna do about Ian? Like telling people how you found him?”

“Yeah, are you going to tell them the truth?” Luke asked. 

The nurse shook his head.“I’ll be making something up. I value honesty...however encountering situations like this are often the exception to that. People don’t readily believe this kind of thing I’m afraid.”

“I have to agree, I’m not certain if any of us would have believed what happened if he hadn’t seen it for ourselves.” Satch said, hand going for the switch as the rest of them walked out of the room. There was a pause, and Hana could imagine his finger lingering over it as he took a last look at the room, before he finally shut off the light. On the room, and this part of their adventure.

This wild ride they’d been on for so long was finally reaching an end.


	27. Chapter 27

_ One Week Later _

If word of Ian’s disappearance had trickled slowly through the school, then the news that he had been found was as if a dam had broken. By  _ who _ , Hana had no idea, if she hadn’t had a hand in getting him back, she would’ve been one of the last to find out.  Her, Satch, Mai and Luke were all playing innocently ignorant. They acted as shocked as everyone else when they ‘found out’ that Ian had been found wandering around campus with apparently no recollection of where or how he’d been taken. 

Hana was glad Ian had spent a week away with his family to recover, because by then things had at least slowed down. Kind of. At the very least, it meant he wouldn’t suddenly show up to class before the news he was back got around. That would’ve just invited way too many questions from people who didn’t know him but were too curious for their own good. 

Unfortunately it didn’t save him from whispers the first day he was back in class. People needed to be  _ way  _ more subtle if Hana could hear bits of their ‘secret’ conversations from the other side of the classroom.

“...amnesia? Like seriously?”

“Well I think it’s all just…”

“...tried running away with someone and it didn’t work out.”

Ian had always tried to stay low key. He didn’t like being the center of attention, even among his friends at times. Hana felt a sting of anger at every rumor she heard, it was like they were theorizing about some show or movie instead of an actual  _ person. _ Her temper kept rising, he was  _ right there _ too! If Hana could hear them he probably could as well! She eyed Ian, seeing how he was taking this and…

He was completely spaced out. On a first glance he could be paying attention to Ms. Shizuka’s lesson but further scrutinization gave way to the fact that he wasn’t focusing at all.  Hana couldn’t fault him for having something else on his mind. Who honestly expected his first day back in class after six weeks to be productive? He was crazy behind, and most of what they were learning today required the context of previous lessons.

...Also, who knew what side effects he still had from being in the void for so long? Hana had only been there for a couple minutes (She swore it felt like longer than that but that was besides the point.) yet she’d had some lingering effects. This was expected. Normal.

The only remarkable thing that happened for the rest of the class period really was a brief moment of Ian startling and glancing around frantically, though Hana figured Luke had just nudged him or something and he was feeling jumpy. She knew how that felt, and that was probably a leftover of the void…He returned to spacing out not long after that.

The bell rang, and as per usual nobody took their time leaving, hungry after a long morning. Hana knew  _ she _ hadn’t eaten breakfast this morning and she doubted she was alone. 

Well actually nobody took their time...except Ian. Luke had gone on ahead and went to talk to PBG and apparently not noticed that his friend hadn’t followed him. He was still sitting at his desk. She thought maybe he was just waiting for people to leave so nobody ambushed him about his disappearance on the way out but as her and Mai got closer she realized he was still out of it. Had he not heard the bell ringing?

Hana didn’t want to startle him, she put a hand on his desk rather than on him and tried to get his attention. “Hey.”

Ian’s head snapped up, he stared at the two of the them for a minute before blinking and responding “Oh uh, hey.” He noticed the lack of any other students in the classroom a moment later. “Did I miss the bell?”

“Yeah, and I think Luke kind of bolted without realizing it.” 

“Eh, whatever. I’m not amazing company right now anyway.” Ian said, standing up and grabbing his stuff. He took a brief glance at the teacher’s desk and sighed “I wanted to talk to Shizuka about my make up work but it looks like she left already too. Guess I’ll ask after lunch.”

“I can help you get caught up.” Hana said, keen to offer her help.. 

A faint smile, just the corners of his lips moving up grew on Ian’s face. Hana couldn’t help but notice how strained it looked. Even with a week of rest out of the void, every fiber of Ian’s being looked tired and drained. She had the feeling he’d chosen to come back when he did more out of not wanting to miss more school than actually feeling ready to go back.  “Thanks.”

Things were quiet on the way to lunch. 

Things were decidedly  _ not _ quiet when they reached the Hidden Block table. Nobody else had actually seen Ian since he got back so that was to be expected. Ian looked be begrudgingly allowing it. Happy to see his friends again, no doubt, but not entirely happy about the extra attention.

The little grin when he was barraged with hugs looked pretty genuine though.

Eventually he was released and allowed to actually sit down to eat. There was no awkwardness, no hesitation after that either, the club went straight to the questions after it was one hundred percent clear how much they’d missed Ian and were glad to have him back.

“There’s been a  _ lot  _ of stories going around the school, so uh what actually happened?” Jimmy asked, pointing a fork at him. 

Ian, who was yet to start eating himself, responded in a voice that suggested he’d answered this question a lot. (And Hana didn’t doubt it. School officials. Police. His  _ family… _ that was a lot of people to explain to.) “Well if you heard the one about me having amnesia, then you heard the right story already.” 

Wallid’s brows went up. “You really don’t remember anything? Not even how?”

“Nope. Must’ve hit my head somewhere along the way or something. I barely even remember Creeps finding me.” There was something weirdly nonchalant about the way Ian was explaining it. Hana wasn’t much of a liar herself but...well maybe it was just the fact that she knew,, giving her a bias, but he didn’t sound all the convincing. 

“Yikes dude.” Jeff said, and maybe it wasn’t just Hana, he looked uneasy. 

“I’m...trying not to sweat it too much. Who knows, maybe forgetting what happened is for the better.” he said, finally taking an aggressive stab at his food. Hana winced. There was definitely some wishful thinking going on in her friend’s head when he said that. He’d love to forget the time he spent in the void, she was sure.

Yikes indeed.

“You sure you’re good to be back in school and everything though dude?” Luke pressed his lips flat before speaking again. “You were like, checked out in class today.”

This observation was met with a smile that was... _ familiarly _ creepy in the way Ian was forcing it.  “I’m fine. I’ll be back on track once I have what I need to catch up, you know?”

If he’d been too casual moments ago, he was definitely too  _ upbeat _ now. It gave Hana chills. A little faking was to be expected, that was how Ian dealt with things normally but he was overdoing it. Overdoing it in a manner that reminded Hana of…

Of when he hosted  _ Televoid _ …

She shared a look with Luke and Mai. They’d recognized it too.

“You know you don’t have to fake it around us, don’t you?” Caddy asked. So it was obvious something was way off with how Ian was reacting even to someone who hadn’t watched him act like that on  _ Televoid _ . “No one’s gonna crucify you for being freaked out Moose.”

“I’m not freaked out James, I said I didn’t remember anything. What’s there to be freaked out about?” Annoyance seeped through every word Ian spoke.  

“Uh, the  _ fact  _ that you don’t remember anything?” Jimmy raised an eyebrow and stared at him like he had three heads.

Ian shrugged. “I’m taking it in stride.”

Hana could see the unease spreading through the club. From what she could tell, Ian was mostly unaffected or possibly even  _ unaware  _ that the way he was acting was...not normal. They all knew he made habit of hiding his emotions and playing things cool, but this was a bit  _ much _ for him.

Lunch came to an end eventually, the conversation had tapered off to other things in the meanwhile. While Hana, Mai, Luke and Ian set off for class, Mai nudged Luke in the elbow. 

“Hey Luke, can you come with me to my locker really quick?” 

“Uhh sure?” he sounded confused. Hana was as well for a second, then Mai took a glance behind her at Hana and Ian and she got what she was going for. Giving her and Ian a second to talk alone. There wasn’t much Hana couldn’t bring up around those two but she appreciated it. 

It was the first time she’d had a chance to speak with Ian alone since they’d been in the void, and he looked thoughtful. He was shifting his mouth around in a manner that suggested he was searching for the right thing to say. Hana was at a standstill as well. She felt it was too soon bring up anything related to  _ Televoid  _ yet. Not to mention the other students around. Did she welcome him back? Ask him how he was doing? 

“Should I keep the beard?” he asked finally, eyebrows raised. He ran a hand absently over the facial hair.

“What?” 

“I mean, I definitely want to get a haircut,  _ this  _ is ridiculous.” he lifted a long strand of hair he’d previously had pushed back. “But I’ve never been able to grow a decent beard before. I feel like shaving it would be waste.” 

“It...makes you look a little older, if that’s something you want to go for.” Hana said, though it wasn’t  _ just _ the beard doing so if you asked her. The bags and dark circles still present under his eyes did a fantastic job of aging him as well.

“Hm.” he appeared to ponder if that was something he wanted. “Eh maybe I won’t…”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Hana blurted. Slick Hana. Slick. “I know you were saying so around the guys at lunch but they didn’t...you know you don’t have to pretend around me right? Or Mai, Luke and Satch for that matter.”

A flicker of  _ something _ crossed Ian’s face, but it was gone before Hana could process what. “I’m really not that bad off Hana, I promise. I’m just still adjusting is all.” 

Hana turned to look in front of her a moment, the classroom was up ahead already. She peered at him out of the corner of her eyes.  Still adjusting. She supposed that made sense but…

There was a frantic look on Ian’s face, and it faded in an instant once he noticed Hana was looking at him again.

It had to be more than that.


	28. Chapter 28

It was like the more Ian said he was okay, the less okay he actually became. At least that was Hana’s theory. She knew Ian had problems venting when something was up, hell her figuring out what to do with him when he wasn’t expressing it was  _ how she ended up in Hidden Block _ . This was absurd though.

Those other times he’d been masking it so nobody found out something was going on.  The thing with this time was he  _ obviously  _ had something going on, and everyone knew what the reason was. (...Sort of.) And yet he still tried to insist he was fine. It was getting ridiculous.

The problem of the day that her and Luke were, in his words not theirs, bothering him about was that he’d’ apparently barely been sleeping since he got back from the void. No wonder those dark circles under his eyes weren’t getting any better. Ian had gotten his hair cut and ended up shaving the beard off in an attempt to look more put together but those still stuck out like a sore thumb.

“I told you, I didn’t sleep the void.” his voice was an almost hissed whisper, they were towards the back of the library where nobody ever sat, but it paid to be careful. “I’m still not used to it and having a hard time remembering to.”

“You’ve been out for over a week and you’re still pulling all nighters like every other day.” Luke protested. “That crap isn’t healthy.”

Ian closed his eyes, and the book lying in front of him. He shoved it to the side.“I thought you guys were helping me catch up on my school work, not staging a god damn  _ intervention _ or whatever this is.”

“You almost falling asleep at the table a few minutes ago is kind of relevant to your school work Ian.” Hana opened his book back up and slide it back in front of him. He rested his chin on his elbow and turned it back to the page they’d left off on.

“All right, I’ll try sleeping more. Happy?” Ian snapped. With him lately it was either trying  _ way  _ too hard to give the impression he was put together...or lashing out when that was failing. 

Obviously it was the latter today. It was the latter quite often when it came to the people who  _ knew _ what he’d gone through, as there really wasn’t much fooling people into thinking you were fine when they knew you’d been trapped in the void and forced to host a television show against your will.

“And also  _ eat more _ ?” Hana inquired. That had been an issue too, though not nearly as bad as the sleeping thing. The only answer she received was a sigh and an impressively dramatic eyeroll. Alright, she was testing his patience now. They should probably back off and just go ahead with the school work.

The study session shifted back to normal, helping him with the work was better received than the questions into his health. His mood was improving ever so slightly, and not in a way that suggested he was faking either. Baby steps.

“You know we’re not trying to bug you man, it’s just you avoiding what happened isn’t-”

Baby steps, followed by an abrupt push right back down the stairs. Luke hadn’t meant any harm but timing and accidental emphasis on the wrong part of a word were his enemy.

The book slammed close yet again, much louder and Ian stood up this time. “Are you really making  _ puns  _ about this now?” 

Shit. A _ void. _

“That’s not what I was trying to-” Luke put his face in his hand, Ian stormed off too quickly for him to explain himself. He slunk back into his seat “I wasn’t even thinking that…Should of chosen my words more carefully huh?”

Hana shook her head, that hadn’t been it, she knew it. “Luke I think he was just on the edge of exploding and anything would’ve set him off.” 

While the two of them were packing their stuff away-they’d had no business in the library other than helping Ian catch up-Satch joined them. Right, Hana had seen him putting some books away on the way in, he must’ve taken notice of Ian leaving in a huff. 

“I take it the studying wasn’t smooth sailing?” Satch asked the two of them, tucking a book he had with him under his arm. Luke pulled his hat over his face instead of responding. 

“It was for a while but we prodded him a bit too much about other things.” Hana said, throwing her bag over her shoulder. No use denying that. She knew she had a habit of being a bit too... _ pushy _ when it came to her friends’ wellbeing. 

“Yeah sometimes you gotta take it easy.” Satch said as evened out the askew chair that Ian had been sitting at at.“I’m sure he knows you meant well though, Ian’s just not the kind of person who responds well to being pressured like that.” 

“I should know that. I _ knew _ that. ” Hana groaned. She really had, part of her knew this was a bad way to go about things but… “It’s hard for me to be passive about this kind of thing.” 

“Hey don’t act like it was just you Hana, I’ve been pushing him too.” Luke said, fixing his hat back to normal. “It’s hard to maintain a balance of letting him know we’re worried and here for him and not getting down his throat about it.”

“Yeah…” she said, frowning, annoyed at herself. “We can apologize at dinner I suppose. If he shows up…” 

-o-

Contrary to her expectations, Ian did show up at dinner. He actually appeared to be acting more like his regular old self as well. He was a  _ little _ overstated at times but for the most part it was business as usual. The club being loud and animated, him occasionally offering snark especially towards Caddy. There was...one thing though.

Ian retreated from conversation pretty much every time Hana and Luke entered the discussion. So he was absolutely still sore over what happened in the library today. Ouch. Nobody was paying this much mind though, maybe it was only noticeable to the two of them or the others were just glad Ian was a little more himself.

Hopefully that apology later would work. For now though…

“Yo, Ian can you pass me a napkin?” Luke asked, pointing over at the dispenser that was by their friend. Hm. Was he not sure if Ian was actively trying to give them the cold shoulder and testing it? He had his answer if he was asking that question, Ian suddenly became very focused on something in the opposite direction of Luke and kept his eyes on that. 

This was noticeable to Wallid at least, who handed Luke a napkin instead, eyeing their friend with a quirked eyebrow. “Ian buddy, you still with us?”

“Uh yeah just thought I saw something.” Ian turned his head back but for the remainder of dinner, kept his attention on anything  _ but  _ Luke and Hana. He excused himself early, citing needing to get some more make up work done, and not giving Hana the chance she wanted to talk to him and apologize for earlier. Figures.

Well, at the very least he couldn’t avoid  _ Luke  _ forever. They were roommates after all. 

As tended to happen with dinner, not everyone left at once. The club members tapered off when they needed to as they finished their meals. As Jeff left to head to soccer practice, the table was left with just Hana and Caddy who were the notable slow eaters of the club if not given a reason to rush. (With the exception of Ian after his return, but he flat out just picked at his food and left without finishing anyway, that didn’t count.)

“He was being nicer to  _ me  _ than to you and Luke today.” Caddy said, wiping his hands as he finally finished off his dinner.

“He’s mad at us for mothering him too much.” Hana muttered, pushing her tray aside and tossing garbage onto it. She had food left but wasn’t feeling it anymore. Besides, she didn’t want to be left at the table alone or keep Caddy sitting there just for the sake of keeping her company. He was standing to dump his tray and leave after all.

“Ahh.” Caddy replied, extending his hand for Hana’s tray and with a smile she passed it over to him to dump at the trash can near the table. Surprisingly, as she made to stand up herself, Caddy plopped right back down in his chair. “Well I’m an  _ expert  _ in pissing Ian off, and er, cold shoulder definitely means he’s actually really peeved. I’ve only gotten that a few times.”

“...Great.” Hana grumbled in reply, putting her head on the table. “ _ Super _ .”

Caddy patted her on the back. “ _ Buut _ you’re also on better terms with him normally so I doubt it’ll last.”

“You think?” Hana asked, lifting her head back up. Caddy gave her a wide grin back.

“Absolutely! I know Ian’s obviously gone through  _ something _ even if he can’t remember it, but I don’t think that’d change him that much as a person.”

_ “They...fucked with my head a lot. Among other things.” _

With what she knew though, Hana just had to hope and pray that Caddy was still right.


	29. Chapter 29

“I guess I was just hoping everything would at least start to go back to normal. But this feels like the whole deal with Jeff and Jimmy all over again.”  Hana leaned on her desk, exhausted physically and emotionally. “I’m tired of  _ fighting _ . With the void, with  _ friends _ ...”

Mai squeezed her shoulders. “I know sweetpea, but Ian’ll come around. I mean, the dude’s always been closed off right? I bet he just needs his space from void stuff and you guys were reminding him of it too much”

“That’s what Caddy said, well minus the void part, but I can’t help…” Hana trailed off. Maybe she shouldn’t bring that up. ”Nevermind.”

Mai, apparently not satisfied with Hana brushing her thought off, suddenly spun her chair around to face her, making Hana yelp in surprise, and removed her hands to cross her arms.  “You and Ian are more alike than I thought. What’s up?”

Hana wanted to argue that her not sharing terrible ideas dreamed up by her anxiety was different from closing off from her friends that had tried to help and trying to brush off all her problems but that would’ve just prompted Mai to ask what she meant by said _ terrible ideas _ . It was a loss for her either way, so she just decided to confess on her own terms.

“When I was in the void with Ian,” Hana began, and took a deep breath. She could see the frown straining on Mai’s face at the mention of her being in the void. “He made a comment about how something was  _ messing with his head _ while he was hosting the show. I’m worried whatever that was might’ve really screwed him up. I mean, you heard him doing  _ the host voice _ at lunch. He felt like himself when we were in there but on the way out…”

Hana cringed at the memory. Nothing but static buzzing in her head. Pins and needles in her chest. She could almost feel the sensations again if she thought too long about it. The void had been doing  _ something  _ to them as they’d been pulled out. And it could’ve...Well Hana still felt off herself; who knows what that did to Ian, who’d been subjected to that stuff for so long.

She felt Mai’s hands returning to her shoulders, and she looked up to see her friend squatting in front of her, her mouth slightly open and her eyes wide with concern. “Hana you were shaking. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

“But you asked…”

Mai smiled, though it did little to hide the worry still clinging to her. Shaking? Hana hadn’t even noticed. “I think I get it. Something happened on the way out you think might’ve really screwed with Ian’s head, yeah?”

Hana nodded, and now she was wondering if it had done something with hers too. That wasn’t the first time little things that could’ve been the void’s lasting influence on her had manifested. (Usually they were in the form of buzzing headaches)  It was hard for her to tell if it was just her anxiety and imagination working in tandem to make her imagine it or an actual... _ side effect. _

“I wish I could just...talk to him about this.” Hana said, hanging her head down again. “I feel like I really screwed up. Who knows how much the void affected him, what if he  _ doesn’t _ forgive me and Luke-”

“If he doesn’t, void bullshit or not, he’s being a jackass.” Mai said flatly, getting up but keeping on hand firmly on Hana’s shoulder. “Like I said, I totally get he might need space but he can’t keep you two at a distance  _ forever _ .”

Hana’s past experiences said that was completely possible for some people, but as much as she worried the void had changed Ian...she truly couldn’t see him doing that. Ian was too good of a person for that. She breathed in deeply. Mai was right. 

“Yeah, you’re right.” Hana stretched, and started to yawn. Sometimes she wondered what would she do without Mai to keep her level headed and her fear running away from her. Now more than ever with all they’d just been through  “I think I’m gonna head to sleep. It’s...I’m exhausted in every possible way right now.”

“Yeah it’s getting late...” Mai gave her a light pat on the head, then an odd look passed over her. “Sleep well all right?”

**-̭̥̠̮̥̎̊̏͜o̝̥͓̩̰͓̟͌͌͠-̞͝**

Her dreams led her back to the void again.

Hana always forgot while she was awake, but every few nights she dreamt of being there. What’s worse, it wasn’t the part of the place from  _ Televoid  _ no, here there was no chair, no plant, no TV. That wouldn’t have improved things  _ much _ , but at least then there’d be some familiarity. Instead she was led somewhere empty. 

Emptiness, darkness, all around her. There was nothing here except a faint sound. Static.

Hana began to recall her other dreams here, she’d followed the sound hadn’t she? She couldn’t remember what it led to yet but...surely it was likely to be coming from the old TV that played the programs Ian riffed on during  _ Televoid _ ? What else could emit it?

She walked. And walked.

It was unnerving, uncomfortable, walking through the void. Walking through pure nothing meant she had no idea how far she’d travelled. If she’d even travelled. This place was another dimension she could just be walking in place for all she knew. It  _ felt _ like that.

Hana tried not to let it bug her. This was a dream after all. She was well aware of that. She couldn’t make herself wake up unfortunately, but she could control what she was doing. Hana shuddered at the thought of being in the void, dreaming or not, with no control over what she was doing. 

**_You could ask Ian what that’s like._ **

She almost smacked herself for thinking that. Control over her actions sure, but apparently in a lucid dream her subconscious could still go some places on its own. 

Hana wondered if she’d find him there, when she hopefully got to the familiar area of the void. She still couldn’t remember what had happened the other times she got there. She felt a sense of foreboding inside her. Maybe that meant that was a yes, the idea of Ian still stuck in this place, even just in her dreams was absolutely  _ not good _ .

She stopped. Listened. She wanted to make sure she was still heading in a direction that would take her closer to the static. Okay a little this way maybe…Hana started walking again going a bit towards what she thought was the left.

Did Hana mention she hated walking around in nothingness? Because Hana definitely hated walking around in nothingness. Who knows how much she’d gotten turned around… The static sounded barely louder…

**_Or is it getting quieter?_ **

This was disorienting…

Finally though, Hana saw something that told her she was on the right path. It had taken what felt like hours to reach but she saw a faint purple light shining through the emptiness. She recalled both seeing this in dreams past, and the faint purple glow on Ian when he was hosting  _ Televoid _ .

She ran as fast as her short skinny legs and oxfords(apparently she dreamed herself wearing her uniform. Go figure) could take her.  It got closer, the static got louder. For once that sound was a good thing to her. She sped up as much as she could when she saw the light, as well as the furniture from the  _ Televoid  _ set. Running around in these dreams was always...weird. Weird in that it wasn’t the sort of gleefully effortless running you usually got in dreams. She actually ran rather normally.

**_Almost here._ **

By the time Hana reached it, she was almost out of breath. Her heart pounding distracted her from taking in her surroundings properly for a bit. She just stood with her hand on the chair, panting for breath. 

As that was the case, she didn’t realize someone was sitting in the chair until she composed herself. 

“Ian?” she asked softly, peering over the chair.

**_“Not Ian~”_ **

Hana shrieked and flung herself back. A copy of her sat in the chair. The copy from the broadcast, in her horrific black and white and staticy glory. The voice she’d been hearing sporadically hadn’t been her own thoughts. It’d been  _ her _ .

No wonder she’d been forgetting. It was less about it slipping away as she woke up, more about  _ repressing. _ Hana bet she’d come to that realization a few times.

The copy stood up, not moving robotically like Hana expected. On the contrary her movements were exceptionally...graceful. Like every single twitch of her muscles were choreographed with precision. Hana backed away but the copy caught her arm and held it tight. She trembled.

_ Let me wake up, let me wake up… _

**_“You can’t wake up yet Hana~”_** the copy’s voice was sing-song, as well rehearsed as her movements. Even as the grip tightened, Hana tried to wrench her arm free. If she got away from this thing, maybe she’d wake up… 

**_“It’s almost time for the show~”_ **

“ _ I’m not hosting...Your...Stupid. SHOW. _ ” she yelled, punctuating with tugs of her arm but the copy still clung on. She grunted. If she tried any harder, she thought her arm would get dislocated. 

Better than stuck here. She pulled harder anyway.

“AH!” 

The copy gripped Hana’s hair, pulling so hard she felt like she was moments away from ripping it clean from Hana’s scalp. Her words went from sing song to the same distorted, malicious voice she’d had back on the TV.

**_“OURS.”_ **

…

Hana woke up, though not in the manner one would expect to see from someone wrenched free of a nightmare.  There was no bolting to a sitting position, screaming like you tended to see in movies or tv. Just a small jerk up, and Hana’s eyes opening. 

Once again, Hana remembered a night of troubled sleep, yet not what had brought it on.


	30. Chapter 30

There was a knock at Hana’s door, and as a testament to how her anxiety was ramping up lately, the sudden noise caused her to jump and drop her phone in surprise. She propped herself upright in her bed, wondering who it was. If it was Mai back for something she’d forgotten to bring to practice she wouldn’t knock. She slid off and headed to answer it.

They were in the process of knocking as Hana opened the door. Looking almost as startled as Hana had moments ago, Ian jerked his hand back quickly.

...Huh.

“Can I come in?” he asked, shifting his weight from one foot to another. It was odd seeing Ian so visibly nervous, even if she could understand why. “I figure we’ve got some stuff we need to talk out.”

“...Yeah.” Hana said as she moved back into the room to let him come in. Both extending an invitation inside and agreeing that yes, yes they definitely needed to talk. She was surprised to see he was the one to approach her first though, she’d been planning on trying to get him alone to talk and apologize herself.

Ian pushed the door close with a quiet thud after he entered the room. His eyes darted about, looking at everything but Hana, eventually falling on the television sitting on the top of the dresser. “When did you guys get that?”

“Last month, it was a gift from Mai’s sister or something.” Hana said. He was leading with small talk, Ian clearly didn’t want to get right into the thick of things. “She uh, set it up the same day the two of us went to the electronics store actually…”

“Ah.”

Hana watched Ian put his hands in his pockets and jerk his head away from the top of the dresser, observing the floor by his feet rather astutely instead. Hana pressed her lips together as silence fell on the two of them. Awkward,  _ so  _ awkward. She didn’t know where to begin with this. Hana wasn’t sure how Ian would react to her just blurting she was sorry, that hadn’t gone well when she’d tried it in the void. Hana had only made him feel bad…That’s not something she wanted when they were pretty much equally at fault, if not her more so.

“So.” he spoke quietly, tilting his head back up to finally look at Hana, though her height meant he was still looking down. “About the shit the other day...I think I got a little too frustrated with you guys.”

Hana sighed. “We  _ were  _ trying to help, but I get it Ian. We were being pushy, we should  _ know  _ you don’t do well with that.”

“Yeah but I could tell you didn’t mean it and acted all jerkish at lunch even though you wanted to apologize.” he put his head in his hands for a moment and then lifted it with a reluctant smile on his face before he explained how he knew that. “Mai told me that’s all you wanted to do earlier. She...kind of paid me a visit and yelled at me for being an idiot. And frankly I can’t disagree.”

Oh  _ Mai… _

“You’re not an idiot you’re just…” God what was the right word for this? Messed up? No… That was  _ technically _ right but not right in the sense of ‘things you should actually call your best friend who’s recovering from some kind of trauma’ “Not yourself.”

Ian laughed at her attempt at being respectful.“I would’ve said completely unstable but that’s a nicer way of putting it.” 

“Ian-”

He held up his hand. “Hana, don’t try to get me to sugarcoat it. I’m about five hundred and twelve kinds of fucked up because of the void and we both know it. And uh.” Ian scratched at his chin, his eyebrows going up as a soft hint of worry creeped onto his face. “I hear you’re not doing too good yourself?”

Hana shook her head vigorously. This wasn’t about her. “I’m not that bad! I’ve had little side effects here and there since we got out of the void but that’s it!”

“Mai says you’ve been sleeping pretty rotten.”  Ian narrowed his eyes, pressing his lips into a thin line before elaborating.. “ _ Nightmares _ she thinks.”

Nightmares probably would explain how rough she’d been waking up lately wouldn’t it? Yet the thing was... “Okay I  _ haven’t  _ been sleeping well but I don’t remember having any nightmares.” She crossed her arms.

“Doesn’t mean it isn’t happening. Mai looked pretty sure of it.” He crossed his arms as well, and Hana got the impression he was doing so for the sole reason of mocking her posture. “You know, you’re doing a damn good impression of  _ me  _ right now with all this  _ ‘I’m fine’ _ business.”

Between his comments now and Mai’s yesterday, Hana had to admit Ian’s pushing things away response to problems was  _ maybe slightly _ rubbing off on her. Hadn’t she  _ wanted _ to tell him about how the void might still being effecting her the other day? “Alright, nightmares would explain a lot. I’ve...also noticed that um. If I think back to the stuff that happened in the void…”

Ian’s hands shook, then he gripped them tight to stop it. His voice dropped to a whisper filled with  a calm, quiet, horror. “It’s like the static is right there in your head again?”   
  
“And the…” Hana put her hand on her chest and watched Ian’s face grow melancholy. He started to extend his arm towards Hana, perhaps to put it on or around her shoulder, but he held it in midair before withdrawing t. The look about him as he did so made it clear, he was  _ sickened  _ Hana could empathize with him over this.

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t- It’s not that bad Ian. It’s only if I think really hard about it. I don’t have much to dwell on either, I can’t imagine what it’s like for you.” Hana said, and seeing as he was reluctant to do so to her, Hana put a hand on  _ his  _ shoulder. She couldn’t have him beating himself up about this. Hypocritical a thought as that was.

“It’s been rough, I won’t lie to you about that. I feel like the void has a grip on me that’s never gonna go away. Sometimes when I go to sleep, I’m scared I’m gonna wake up back in there. Like all this is a dream. ” Ian said, eyes shifting away from direct contact with Hana’s.  His arms shook just the slightest, like the tremble he held in a few minutes ago was escaping. “Pretty...stupid huh?” 

Ian laughed at himself and it stung her to hear.

Hana squeezed his shoulder. “No, it isn’t. You were in there for so long and, you haven’t even been back for two weeks yet. It’s not good but...it’s reaction I get.” Hana said, and it was true. When she’d started Asagao months ago, there’d been a part of her that wondered if it was all a dream or a prank. That one day she’d be back at Amaririsu High. “But you’re not going back there all right? You’re safe. You’re  _ home. _ ”

In the silence and stillness, Hana saw a shiver go down Ian’s spine.

“I want to believe that Hana, I do but...it’s just…” Ian swallowed and scrunched up his face, eyes closed like he was holding something back. He opened them back up, breathing heavy and his face red. “I swear still feel them watching sometimes Hana. The audience. Like I’m still being broadcasted.”

“That’s…” Not possible, Hana was going to finish. But of course it was, and Ian surely knew that. Hana didn’t want to make him feel crazy. Instead, she asked him something. “Like when?”

“Like now.” his voice was shaky, those two words sounded like the hardest ones Ian had ever spoken.

Hana paused and tried to feel it. The sensation of being watched wasn’t present to her at least. Failing that, she tried to remember what the sensation had been like, according to her friends  _ Televoid  _ had been broadcasting while  _ she _ was there. So it might be in the back of her mind. 

She couldn’t recall it.  “Well I…”

Ian smiled sadly, he could tell what Hana was trying to do. “You don’t have to humor me Hana. I’m losing it. I know.” He lifted Hana’s hand gently off his shoulder.  He took a long step back in the direction of the door before she could even try to regain the grip. He turned to face it, and though he wasn’t moving yet, Hana could tell he wanted to leave. 

Not yet. She couldn’t let one of her closest friends believe she thought he was crazy. Internally, Hana cursed the void, and whoever was in charge of it. She stepped towards him. “It’s like you said. The void is still affecting you. You can’t fault yourself for what it’s done to you Ian.” 

“Can’t I? Maybe if I’d been a  _ good little host _ for the people in charge of  _ Televoid  _ I wouldn’t have so many goddamn problems.” he said, his words half filled with angry, choked laughter. It made Hana want to scream into the void, scream at it for doing this to him.

“No. You  _ can’t _ .” Hana reached up behind Ian, wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug. He jerked at the sudden physical contact but relaxed and Hana felt him shrink in her arms. “Nothing that’s happening to you because of the void is anyone’s fault but whoever trapped you there, all right?” 

Hana was telling herself that as much as she was telling Ian. 

Ian’s breathing got labored and heavy again, and the laughter came again. Only...this time Hana came to the realization it wasn’t laughing. Nor was it angry. It was hard to tell without looking at Ian’s face but listening to it up close Hana could tell what it was. He was crying.  _ Crying. _

“Oh god,  _ Ian… _ ” Hana whispered, not sure what to do but hug her friend tighter. She wasn’t prepared for this. Maybe she should’ve been but it was...it was so unexpected to her. She’d seen Ian sad before and she’d had trouble with  _ that _ . Him openly crying in front of her? Hana was panicking inside. Maybe a little outside too, she felt tears starting to spill over her own eyes. 

Hana hoped to god nobody came by her room anytime soon.

“I’m...I’m tired. I’m sick of this Hana.” he choked out, voice a whimper that felt like someone stabbing clean through Hana’s heart. “I wish it could all stop.”

“I know…” Hana whispered, closing her eyes. “I wish you’d never had to go through all that. It isn’t fair. Someone stringing you along, making you suffer, just to entertain a few people. It wasn’t right. But you’re back now, okay? It can only get better from here Ian. It can’t stay like this forever.I promise.”

Maybe it was Hana being too damn positive for her own good, but it felt like the right words to tell Ian. And damn it, after all this crap, she was allowed to be hopeful. She was allowed to be an optimist. Expecting everything to go wrong and get worse was easy. Hoping for the best when things were low was hard, but it was what her friend needed right now and that’s all it took to push Hana to believe it could be true.

As the words were taken in by Ian, the crying calmed. A sob racked through him every now and then but for the most part he quieted. Eventually the sobs ceased as well, and Ian felt stable enough to lean out of Hana’s hug and face her. 

His face was still streaked with tears, his eyes still red and watery, but  _ in  _ those eyes was a glimmer of hope, and his mouth had curved into a smile. “Thank you.”

It was all that needed to be said, and the two of them hugged again. It wasn’t a hug of comfort like a few moments ago nor of manic happiness like they’d been reunited. Just a calm, quiet hug between friends. It felt like old times, the hugs they’d shared before the void.

Maybe, just maybe, things would be all right after all. 


	31. Epilogue

Not everything returned to normal, and if Hana was honest, she didn’t think they ever would. You don’t move on from an experience like that and let it all go as if it never happened. It changed you, and everyone involved forever. However, no matter what the world kept turning. And despite the hell he endured, things looked up more and more for Ian as each day passed by.

In fact, he was in a particularly good mood when he joined Hana and Satch for a study session. Ian had, for the most part, caught up with his schoolwork by then but a byproduct of that was every essay, worksheet, and reading had gone by in a blur and he’d barely been able to process them. Ian didn’t trust himself to ace the exams coming up without a bit of a hand when that was the case. 

“You’re looking well.” Satch observed, as he scanned over the study guide Hana had handed him. He was a good, patient tutor but still had to refamiliarize himself with the material before he started quizzing.

Hana had to admit how right Satch was. There was still ghosts of the dark circles under Ian’s eyes but he’d definitely been getting more sleep. She also couldn’t remember another time post void, where he’d looked almost...cheerful.

“I just got back from seeing Mr. McPasta,” Ian said, taking the seat next to Hana. “We’ve been kind of talking about what happened, since as I can’t exactly go to a therapist about void shit.”

“Feels good to get some of that off your chest huh?” Satch asked. Ian  _ had _ vented to Hana in passing since the breakdown but there was appeal, benefits to seeing someone more mature and  _ professional _ about those kinds of things. Thank god they’d gotten him involved.

“Yeah. He’s kind of shed light on a few things. It makes me feel a little less crazy.” He pulled out his own copy of the study guide and fished a pencil out of his pocket. “There was one thing that really bugged me, couldn’t wrap my head around it, but he had a theory.”

“What’s that?” Hana couldn’t help her curiosity, though hoped it didn’t come across as prying. 

“I kind of flipped out when I found out I was only gone for a little over a month. I’ll put it this way, it definitely felt like longer than that in the void. A  _ lot _ longer. I started to think the void had screwed with my mind a lot more than I thought already but...” he looked at Hana with a little smile. “Creeps said you had pointed out a while ago that my hair was growing too fast for the time I was in there. Since the void is some kind of other dimension, he thinks it’s possible time flowed differently there. Slower.”

Hana’s eyes widened. “The makes sense! It felt like I was in the void for  _ much _ longer than the few minutes Mai said it took to get us out.” 

“That place just keeps getting weirder and weirder the more we think about it.” Satch said, putting down the study guide.

“You don’t even know.” Ian and Hana said at once. The two shared a look before laughing. 

“Jinx, you owe me a soda.” Hana said with a firm poke to Ian’s shoulder before he could get the words out himself. 

He returned it with a mock offended look, before shaking his head and returning to a smirk. “All right, how about this? I buy the sodas  _ if  _ you come over and play some Marionette Party with me after we’re done studying.” 

“That’s not how jinx works but I suppose so.” Hana sighed, pretending to be annoyed. Inside though, she was exploding with joy. They hadn’t done something like that in so long. She knew it’d be some time before Ian would be up to movie nights again, he’d told her himself that his love of old stuff had taken a hit because of  _ Televoid _ , but the two of them planning a game night was so blissfully  _ normal. _

Satch chuckled. “Shall we get to studying then? You’re not going to have much time for party games if you’re busy trying to make up a failing grade.”

“All right, all right.” Ian held up his hands, then put his arms down on the table “I’ve done enough make up work for a fucking  _ lifetime _ . Miss S didn’t exactly go easy on me with my deadlines.”

“You’d think she would.” Hana shook her head. Though she had a feeling she knew the answer to that. Special treatment and going easy wasn’t exactly Miss Shizuka’s thing and well...Maybe she’d thought it would make Ian feel more normal. It was her showing she cared in her own strange way. “That’s just how she is I suppose.”

“Yeah, I guess I’m okay with one less person acting weird to me.” he said, tapping his pencil against his chin. “I feel like I’m always gonna be ‘That Asagao student that went missing’ before anything else now.” 

“Maybe, but it’ll die down eventually I’m sure. If not this year before you graduate for sure.” Satch grinned at him and Ian rolled his eyes, like he was imagining dealing with it for that wrong. “Okay so, onto the first topic. Explain to me the method you’d use for calculating…”

Hana smiled and went to her study sheet. Her and Satch spent the rest of the free afternoon quizzing and helping Ian with his work, preparing him as best they could for the upcoming exam. (It certainly wasn’t a detriment to Hana’s preparation either.) She once again basked in how delightfully...normal everything was settling down to be again.

With all that set and done, with how they’ve managed to move on from this whole ordeal Hana had one thing that lingered in her mind and...maybe it would for the rest of her life. She certainly didn’t bring it up, they’d had enough mystery and trouble with the void for a lifetime. Still, Hana couldn’t help but wonder.

Had there been others like Ian, taken away to the void and pulled through the static?

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarify, that wasn't a sequel hook. I'm just too much of a fan of the show to not end this fic on a bit of a Twilight Zone twisty note. (Especially as it was a bit of an inspiration while writing this.)
> 
> Thank you so much for reading guys. I've poured my heart and soul into this fic and it means a lot.


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